The typhoons Hagibis and Faxai have decimated Japanese farms, wiping out crops, ruining land and equipment and causing damage worth over US$2 billion. From the strawberry farms of Tochigi to the rice paddies of Chiba, the livestock farms of Gunma and the apple orchards of Aomori, the damage to Japan caused by two major typhoons this autumn has been devastating.
In many places, nearly one month after super typhoon Hagibis became the largest storm to sweep across Japan in 60 years, farmers are still attempting to tally the exact cost in terms of lost crops and livestock as well as damage to agricultural equipment and regional infrastructure critical to the industry, such as dams and irrigation channels.
In its latest estimate of the financial hit that the industry has taken, Japan’s ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries said on Tuesday that the nation’s farmers had lost more than 253 billion yen (US$2.32 billion). Those figures are combined estimated losses as a result of Hagibis, which struck central Japan on October 12 and swept across eastern regions of the country over the following 24 hours, and typhoon Faxai, which made landfall on September 9 and followed a similar path.
