Typhoon Usagi heads for Japan, picking up strength

TOKYO, July 30 (Reuters) A typhoon moving towards Japan was forecast today to pick up strength and hit the country's southern coast later in the week.

Typhoon Usagi, which means ''rabbit'' in Japanese, was moving northwest at 15 km (9 miles) per hour around Ogasawara, an area in the Pacific Ocean dotted with sparsely populated islands 1,200 km south of Tokyo, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

Bringing with it winds gusting up to 144 km per hour, the centre of the storm was forecast to reach just south of Japan's southernmost island of Kyushu by Thursday, covering the region with rain and winds.

UK-based Web site Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com) classified Usagi as a category 1 typhoon and forecast it would strengthen to category 4 by Wednesday before fading out as it moved over Japan's main island of Honshu.

The southern island of Kyushu was hit by the powerful Typhoon Man-yi earlier in the month. The storm killed three people and injured more than 70 as it moved along the country's eastern coastline.

REUTERS PD KN1731