HONG KONG — With a supertyphoon bearing down on Japan on Thursday, Rugby World Cup organizers canceled two matches for the first time.

Saturday’s games between New Zealand and Italy in Toyota City and between England and France in Yokohama were canceled because of safety concerns, Alan Gilpin, the tournament director, said at a news briefing in Tokyo.

“We’ve been intensively working through a range of contingency options in partnership with host cities, the venues and the teams to try and ensure that any impacted matches has a fair chance of being played,” Gilpin told reporters. “However, the risks are just too challenging to enable us to deliver a fair and consistent contingency approach for all teams and participants, and importantly, to provide confidence in the safety of spectators.”

He said that the storm was expected to be the most severe typhoon of the 2019 season in Japan and that public transportation shutdowns and disruptions were expected in Tokyo, Yokohama and Toyota City.