(Reuters) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
TAIPEI\/TOKYO, June 26 – Torrential rains from a passing tropical storm shut \u200cdown a swathe of southern and parts of northern Taiwan on Friday, leaving more than 5 million people off work or school, while neighbouring Japan issued flooding and landslide warnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Typhoon Mekkhala, now a tropical storm and nearing southern Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, did not \u200bmake direct landfall in Taiwan, but its outer bands have brought heavy rain to parts of the \u200bisland, especially in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governments of all three Taiwanese \u2060regions, where more than 5 million people live, ordered offices and schools closed on Friday. Severe flooding in \u200bTainan shut down a section of the main north-south railway line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The northern Taiwanese city of Hsinchu, home to the \u200bworld’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab<\/a>, said that from noon (0400 GMT), it would also close offices and schools. TSMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heavy rain and strong winds also lashed wide areas of Japan, which issued high-level warnings for landslides, \u200bflooding and swollen rivers in parts of the western and southern regions, and an evacuation order for 2.2 \u200bmillion residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that a stationary seasonal rain front, combined with warm, moist air feeding into it, was \u200ccausing intense \u2060rainfall, particularly across western Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n