Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- One person died and Tokyo commuters struggled to get to work as Typhoon Fitow blew across the Japanese capital with 147 kilometer per hour (92 miles an hour) winds before weakening to a tropical storm.
A 76-year-old man died while trying to clear trees in Nagano Prefecture north of Tokyo, the country's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on its Web site. A 52-year-old man is missing in Kanagawa, west of Tokyo, and 68 people were injured.
East Japan Railway Co. suspended operations on two lines connecting Tokyo with nearby Chiba prefecture, it said on its Web site. The Chuo Line, one of Tokyo's main links, was operating with fewer trains than normal, leaving commuters facing delays amid the debris left by the typhoon as it hit the capital.
Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co., the nation's two biggest carriers, canceled 223 flights, stranding more than 36,000 people.
National broadcaster NHK Television showed collapsed houses, landslides and damaged roads in areas outside Tokyo as Fitow made a northerly track through the main island of Honshu.
Fitow's winds slowed to 92 kilometers per hour as the storm moved north from Tokyo after the storm's eye made landfall at about 2 a.m. today, according to the Web site of the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Shipments Stopped
The center of the storm was near the city of Noshiro on the northwestern coast of Honshu at 4 p.m. today, the agency said. It was moving north-northeast at 50 kilometers per hour. Noshiro is 502 kilometers north of Tokyo.
Fitow is forecast to continue weakening as it crosses the strait between Honshu and Hokkaido, passing into Japan's northern island.
High waves and strong winds stopped petroleum shipments by refineries yesterday near Tokyo Bay. Idemitsu Kosan Co., Japan's second-biggest oil refiner, halted shipping operations at its 220,000-barrel-a-day Chiba refinery, according to company spokeswoman Kumiko Yoshida.
Nippon Oil, the nation's biggest oil refiner, stopped all sea shipments from three refineries, said a spokesman who declined to be identified due to company policy.
Cosmo Oil Corp. also stopped berthing operations at its 240,000-barrel-a-day plant in Chiba, spokesman Atsushi Tanaka said yesterday.
The suspension of the shipments probably won't affect domestic supplies because the refiners have reserves to cover disruptions, they said.
Japan is regularly buffeted by tropical cyclones during the northern hemisphere's summer. Three people died last month when Typhoon Man-Yi swept across Okinawa and Kyushu.
Fitow is the name of a flower found on the island of Yap in Micronesia, according to the Web site of the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists cyclone names in use in the Pacific.
A record 10 tropical storms and typhoons hit Japan during 2004, killing more than 60 people and causing billions of dollars of damage.
To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; Eijiro Ueno at e.ueno@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net; David Tweed at dtweed@bloomberg.net.
Typhoon Fitow has struck Japan, leaving two people dead and a third missing. The storm moved through Tokyo yesterday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency released the information on the storm's effects in the country yesterday. The deceased are a 50-year-old construction worker who died after a landslide at a dam construction site in Fukui Prefecture last night and a 76-year-old man who died after being struck by a falling tree on September 6, shortly after Fitow made landfall. A 52-year-old man is missing in Kanagawa Prefecture, believed to be dead, and at least 60 people have been injured by the storm.

According to information released by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, around 200 buildings have been destroyed or badly damaged by the typhoon. A total of 5,000 people have been told to evacuate, 3,000 last night in Miyagi Prefecture.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, Japan's two largest air carriers, both said 240 domestic and eight international flights have been cancelled as a direct result of the storm, which is expected to be immediately followed by Tropical Storm Danas. Fitow is now moving towards the Sea of Okhotsk, making progress at about 24 miles per hour. It is predicted that the storm will deposit anything up to 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rainfall on areas on the Pacific coast, possibly triggering flash floods.