Japanese automakers close plants as Typhoon Roke bears down

13 years, 1 month ago - 23 September 2011

As if the country of Japan has had enough to deal with over the last several months, the country is now facing a powerful typhoon with winds reaching up to 210 km per hour.

Tokyo Electric Power reports that 575,500 households are without power already, and that number could certainly climb.

Japanese automakers are bracing for Typhoon Roke as well. According to reports, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi have all closed down plants or cancelled shifts at facilities affected by the storm.

This is the second typhoon to hit Japan so far this year, and the country averages between two and four of the storms every year. In other words, this may not be the last weather-related outage you hear about from Japanese automakers in 2011.