Typhoon Season in Tokyo: What Remote Workers Should Actually Do

Here’s the short version: a typhoon rarely wrecks Tokyo the way the word suggests, but it will almost certainly stop you getting around the city for about a day.

For a remote worker, that’s what you actually lose. The meeting you can’t get to, the coworking day you already paid for, the flight that quietly vanishes.

Treat typhoon season as a scheduling problem and you’ll usually breeze through it.

Tokyo’s typhoon window runs roughly from August into October, and September is usually the busiest month. Storms form far to the south and take several days to work their way north. If you remember one thing from this article, make it that.

You almost always get warning. Often three or four days of it.

The city gives you notice. The mistake is tuning it out.

How to read the warnings without speaking Japanese

The Japan Meteorological Agency is where everyone else gets their information, and it publishes in English. Bookmark its typhoon and warning pages before you need them.

The words matter more than the numbers here. Japan uses a tiered system, and it escalates in a predictable order.

An advisory is the mild tier: heads up, it might get unpleasant. A warning is where trains start acting up and you should rethink anything outdoors.

Since 29 May 2026, the agency has been putting a level number in warning names, for example “Level 3 heavy rain warning”, so they match the evacuation alert levels your ward issues. Level 4 means everyone in a danger area should evacuate. The new system adds a tier for it, the danger warning, with names like “Level 4 heavy rain danger warning”. If you see one for your area, that’s your cue to leave.

Above that is the emergency warning, which is rare and means conditions are genuinely dangerous. Don’t wait for one before you act, and don’t assume staying inside is automatically safe. While the storm is still days away, look up your address on the ward hazard map (the national Hazard Map Portal also works by address), and follow your ward’s evacuation information. If you’re in a flood, storm surge or landslide zone, get out by Level 4. Staying put only makes sense when the building, the floor and the local hazards all allow it, like an upper floor of a sturdy building outside those zones. Once an emergency warning is out, moving may be dangerous in itself, so do whatever best protects your life at that point. Either way, forget about squeezing the most out of your day.

Your phone will chip in whether you like it or not. Phones on Japanese networks get government emergency alerts, which arrive with a loud alarm that ignores your volume settings. Whether a foreign eSIM or roaming phone gets them depends on the handset and network, so also install Safety tips, the Japan Tourism Agency’s free alert app. It pushes earthquake, tsunami and weather warnings in English and 14 other languages.

That noise isn’t a glitch. It’s the system doing its job.

The thing that actually stops your day: keikaku unkyu

If you learn one term, make it planned suspension, or keikaku unkyu.

Rail operators now announce, usually a day or more ahead, that they’ll stop running certain lines from a certain time. It’s a deliberate call, and there’s no arguing with it.

When it happens, everything stops. Trains stop, stations close, and Tokyo’s usual promise that you can always get somewhere just switches off.

Airport access is often hit first, because the lines to Narita and Haneda run through exposed coastal areas. Flights often get cancelled ahead of time too.

So check your own line on the operator’s site, not just the general news. Announcements go line by line, and a suspension on one railway tells you nothing about another.

When trains come back, they come back slowly and packed. If you need to be somewhere, the morning after a big storm can be worse than the storm itself.

What to do in the three days before

Treat it like a small project with a deadline.

Move anything tied to a place off the storm day. In-person meetings, viewings, appointments and coworking day passes are all much easier to rearrange two days out than two hours out.

If you’ve got a flight in the window, watch the airline directly and grab any free change they offer early. If you wait and see, you’ll be competing with everyone else who waited too.

Buy food the day before, not on the day. Konbini shelves in the storm’s path empty fast, and deliveries stop when roads and trains do.

Charge everything. Phone, laptop, battery pack, and anything else you’d miss during a short outage.

Fill a bottle or two of water. Central Tokyo rarely loses supply, but it costs you nothing.

Your apartment or hotel on the day

Bring in everything from the balcony. Laundry poles, plants, chairs and drying racks turn into projectiles in strong wind, and they cause more avoidable damage to Tokyo buildings than anything else.

Close and lock the windows properly, and pull down any shutters. Locking presses the window against the frame, so it rattles and leaks less.

Stay away from the glass at the peak. On any other day of the year, sitting at a desk pushed up against a big window is totally fine. Not today.

If you’re in a basement or low-lying spot near a river, pay more attention to flood advisories than to wind. In much of the city, sudden flooding from intense rain is the more realistic danger.

Working on a typhoon day

Honestly, set it up right and a typhoon day in Tokyo can be really productive.

Plan on a full day indoors and pick work that fits. Deep tasks, writing, admin backlog, anything you’ve been putting off because it needed a long uninterrupted stretch.

The internet usually holds up. Fixed lines and mobile networks in central Tokyo are tough, though heavy rain can weaken a connection for a bit, so have mobile tethering ready as a backup before you need it.

If you’re in the storm’s path, tell your team early. A quick message the day before looks far better than apologising mid-call, and international colleagues usually have no idea what a planned suspension is.

If your walls are thin, expect noise. Wind hitting a Tokyo apartment building is surprisingly loud the first time.

After the storm passes

The air after a typhoon is often gorgeous. Clear skies, sharp light, and a short break from the humidity that makes late summer bearable.

Give the trains a few hours before you count on them. Check your line before you head out, not once you’re standing at the station.

Watch for debris and broken umbrellas on the streets, and steer clear of rivers and canals for a day or so, because the water stays high after the rain stops.

Then get on with your week. In most of Tokyo, most of the time, that’s really all a typhoon asks of you.

FAQ

Do I need to evacuate during a typhoon in Tokyo?

It depends on exactly where you’re staying, not on how strong the storm sounds. Your local ward or city issues evacuation guidance for specific areas, usually ones at risk of flooding, storm surge or landslides. Check your address on the ward hazard map before the season starts. If it’s inside a risk zone, or you’re in a basement or ground-floor unit near a river, decide where you’d go and leave by Level 4. If it isn’t, and the building is sturdy, staying inside away from the windows is usually the sensible call.

Will my trains and flights definitely be cancelled?

Not definitely, but assume there may be disruption and check the specific operator. Rail companies announce planned suspensions in advance, and airlines often waive change fees when a storm is forecast, so acting early costs you very little.

Is it safe to go outside and look at it?

Not at the peak. Flying debris, slippery footing and sudden gusts around tall buildings are the main dangers, and the storm looks a lot less impressive in person than it does from the window.