Teams will tomorrow resume the desperate search for survivors after a landslide in a Japanese holiday town at the weekend.

Rescuers were holding out hope of finding at least 64 people still buried under the mud and wreckage.

Soldiers and emergency workers used hand-held poles and mechanical diggers to sift through the muddy debris, two days after a torrent of earth slammed down a mountainside and through part of the hot-spring resort of Atami in central Japan.

Rescue operations were suspended in the evening and will resume early tomorrow, city officials said.

Four people have been confirmed dead, although officials are struggling to pinpoint the whereabouts of dozens as they search the wreckage of 130 homes and other buildings that were destroyed.

Pylons were toppled, vehicles buried and buildings tipped from their foundations in the disaster, with aerial footage from the mountaintop showing a stark brown wedge gouged out of the green hillside.

"As of today, at least 64 people are still unaccounted for," the city's disaster-management spokesman Yuta Hara told AFP after the city released their names in a bid to gather information about their status.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the focus was still on finding survivors, with hundreds of rescue workers "doing their best to rescue as many people as possible, as soon as possible".

Saturday's landslide descended in several violent waves during Japan's annual rainy season, following days of intense downpours in and around Atami.

Rescuers today took advantage of a break in the rain to continue their search, wading through streams of murky water and moving blocks of timber and other debris out of the way.

Non-compulsory evacuation orders have been issued to more than 35,700 people across Japan, mostly in the Shizuoka region, including Atami, which is around 90km southwest of Tokyo.

The weather agency forecast heavy rain in the wider region, warning that more landslides could occur.

Atami reportedly recorded more rainfall in 48 hours than it usually does for the whole of July, and survivors told local media they had never experienced such strong rain in their lives.

Scientists say climate change is intensifying Japan's rainy season because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

In 2018, more than 200 people died as devastating floods inundated western Japan, and last year dozens were killed as the coronavirus pandemic complicated relief efforts.