The strongest storm to hit Japan this year battered the southern islands of Kyushu and Shikoku this morning, bringing heavy rain to Tokyo and causeing extensive travel disruption.
Typhoon Vongfong has forced the cancellation of more than 500 domestic flights, the public broadcaster NHK said. At least one overseas flight was cancelled, according to an airline.
Many trains in western cities were also suspended, NHK said.
More than 820,000 people have been urged to leave their homes, it said. About 4,900 households in Tokyo suburbs were without power, media said.
Rain in Tokyo was expected to intensify overnight.
Vongfong battered the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, 600km south of Tokyo, as well as Kyushu and Shikoku islands, injuring 59 people, NHK said.
The wind weakened significantly yesterday from the previous day when it reached a peak of 234kp/h, which had made Vongfong into a "super typhoon".
Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, said in a statement it had also increased the water transfer and storage capacity to prevent an overflow of radioactive water being stored at the plant.
A major baseball game in Osaka city, between the Orix Buffaloes and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for the Pacific League playoff, was also postponed.
It was the first time a Nippon Professional Baseball playoff game was cancelled because of a typhoon.
The typhoon may reach the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, late today or early tomorrow.
Television footage showed the roof and walls of a house ripped off by gusts in Makurazaki, while huge waves were smashing into breakwaters.
"We are calling on our residents to remain on alert as we are still within the storm zone," said Naoki Jomori, an official of Makurazaki's anti-disaster office.
In Shizuoka, central Japan, three Chinese people were swept away by high waves triggered by the typhoon yesterday afternoon as they were fishing on the coast, a local police spokesman said.
"Two of them were rescued safely but the remaining one aged 26 is still missing," the police spokesman said.
The weather agency warned that landslides, floods, high waves and heavy rains could hit a large swathe of the archipelago.
The typhoon also paralysed traffic, stranding thousands of people travelling around the country at the end of a three-day national holiday celebrating health and sports.
India cleans up after cyclone
Meanwhile, a major relief operation is under way after a cyclone pounded India's eastern coast, killing at least 24 people and leaving a trail of destruction.
In the port city of Visakhapatnam, home to two million people, government workers began removing uprooted trees which had blocked roads, restoring snapped power and telecoms lines and clearing up debris including sign boards and corrugated iron roofs which had been ripped off buildings by the strong gusts.
The storm struck just before midday yesterday, bringing torrential rain and winds of nearly 200km/h before weakening as it barrelled inland.
Huge lines were seen at the few petrol stations which reopened after a two-day closure as people carrying jerry cans jostled to get fuel which was in short supply.
Residents also resorted to panic buying items such as milk, candles and kerosene in some places.
Few shops were open and schools and many offices were closed due to poor telecoms and no power for the second day in a row.
Authorities in Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring state of Orissa evacuated around 350,000 people before the cyclone hit, in an attempt to avert the mass casualties inflicted on the area by previous cyclones.
Tens of thousands of people spent a third night in cyclone shelters due to damage to their home or a lack of food or clean drinking water in their villages, officials said.
The relatively low death toll reported so far followed an operation to evacuate more than 150,000 people to minimise the risk to lives from cylone Hudhud - similar in size and power to cyclone Phailin that struck the area exactly a year ago.
According to India's weather office, Hudhud has weakened into a deep depression but is expected to dump heavy rains in northern and northeastern India and, eventually, snow when it reaches the Himalayan mountains.
