Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Wukong made landfall near Miyazaki city on the western Japanese island of Kyushu early this morning, bringing heavy rains and thunderstorms, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported.

Wukong, with maximum sustained winds of 83 kilometers per hour (52 miles), was about 112 kilometers south of the city of Fukuoka at 4 p.m. and had almost stopped moving, the weather agency said. The storm is forecast to skirt Fukuoka, with a population of 1.4 million people, early tomorrow.

Japan is regularly buffeted by tropical storms and typhoons, which left scores dead in 2004. Wukong, named after the Monkey King in the Chinese novel Journey to the West, crossed land shortly after 1 a.m. and brought rains of 55 millimeters (2.1 inches) per hour, Kyodo news reported. Three people were injured and 500 were forced to leave their homes, it said.

Heavy rain, flood, storm and high wave warnings are in affect for all of Kyushu and parts of adjacent Honshu, Japan's weather agency said.

Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co., the country's two largest carriers, canceled at least 36 domestic flights, they said.

Idemitsu Kosan Co., Japan's second-biggest petroleum refiner, Cosmo Oil Co. and Kyushu Oil Co. and halted oil product shipments from three refineries as Wukong approached. The storm caused blackouts in 200 households in Miyazaki prefecture, Kyodo reported, citing Kyushu Electric Power Co.

Postponing Services

Kyushu Railway Co., postponed services on five lines including one that crosses Kyushu, the company said on its Web site. Long distance ferries connecting Kagoshima and Miyazaki with Osaka were also halted, the Asahi newspaper reported.

Typhoon Saomai last week brushed past the southern Japanese island chain of Okinawa on its way to China, where at least 214 people were killed and more than 50,000 houses damaged or destroyed.

At least 20 people died in September last year when Typhoon Nabi hit southwestern Japan. A record 10 typhoons and tropical storms hit Japan in 2004, killing scores of people and causing billions of dollars of damage.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aurel Pasztor in Tokyo at apasztor@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 18, 2006 04:11 EDT