Typhoon Hagibis, closing in from the Pacific, is expected to bring up to 80 centimeters (30 inches) of rain in the Tokyo area, including Chiba to the north that had suffered power outages from a typhoon that hit last month, and some buildings remained partly repaired.
TV talks shows showed footage of household items like a slipper bashing through glass when hurled by winds as powerful as the approaching typhoon.
The typhoon that hit the Tokyo region in 1958 left more than 1,200 people dead and a half-million houses flooded.