TOKYO (AP) A tropical storm moved out of Japan on Sunday after lashing the country with rain and wind, leaving one person dead and prompting evacuation orders for more than 1 million residents near swollen rivers.
Tropical Storm Halong also disrupted land and air traffic and injured dozens of people as Japan began its annual "Obon" Buddhist holiday week.
Originally a typhoon, Halong was downgraded to a tropical storm as it approached the southwest coast and made two landfalls over Shikoku Island and Hyogo prefecture in western Japan. It exited over the Sea of Japan from the northern coast near Kyoto on Sunday evening, and was expected to lose further strength over the next 12 hours.
The storm was off the northern coast of Wajima City, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Tokyo, on Sunday night.
Japan's Meteorological Agency lifted a heavy rain alert for Mie prefecture in central Japan, and evacuation orders for most residents in the region and other areas were withdrawn. About 200,000 people were still subject to evacuation in some areas, down from about 1.2 million earlier Sunday.