Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said jet lag and humidity has made preparations for the opening test against Japan on Saturday quite difficult.

The Irish squad and management are in Japan preparing for Saturday’s opening test against the national team.

Joey Carberry is out of Ireland's tour to Japan.

A powerful typhoon that has killed at least one US airman slammed central Japan, disrupting transport and triggering mudslides, before swerving to the Pacific Ocean.

A POWERFUL typhoon slammed into Japan’s east coast yesterday, leaving six people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged north-east.

A powerful typhoon is bearing down on Japan’s ravaged north-eastern coast today, approaching a nuclear power plant crippled in the tsunami disaster and prompting calls for the evacuation of more than a million people.