Lionrock death toll at 17 as Japan braces for new typhoon

Kind of surprised how little coverage Hokkaido has been getting in either English or Japanese.

The east-west JR link has been severed in a few places. There are busses for people, but nothing extra for freight. Two of the three passes through the mountains are impassable, likely for months. One lane of expressway each way through the mountains, or a 4-5 hour detour via the north coast.

Agriculture has been hit very very hard by this typhoon, mainly because it comes at harvest time, on the heels of two others in August and a very wet June-July. Soba, rice and wheat were hit hard. Over half the corn has been lost in Tokachi as of this typhoon. Root vegetables are looking very bad. Potatoes, onions and carrots especially. There were also heavy livestock losses in a few areas. That translates into job losses in production and transport.

Not Tokyo, not news. It will be news in a couple of months though, when food prices jump. I suppose everyone will just blame Abe for that when it happens, though. Stock up on potato chips. Seriously.