A powerful typhoon today pounded Japan's southern main island of Kyushu with heavy rains and strong winds.
Across the country 75 people were injured, while 22 crew members of an Indonesian freighter were missing. Typhoon Songda forced thousands to evacuate their homes and knocked out power to over a million households.
Police and coast guard were also investigating reports that a Russian-registered freighter had sunk in western Hiroshima prefecture and its 19 crew were missing.
Packing winds of up to 90 miles per hour, Typhoon Songda ploughed into the city of Nagasaki, 640 miles south-west of Tokyo, before it roared across western Honshu, dumping heavy rains and unleashing fierce winds in its path.
Coastguards were searching for the 22 member crew of a 6,300-ton Indonesian cargo ship after the vessel ran aground and was flooded. A rescue team had so far only located one empty lifeboat in the area.
Songda was the record seventh typhoon to hit Japan this year - exceeding the six storms that lashed the country in 1990, the Meteorological Agency said.
It has sparked a major typhoon warning in the Korean peninsula, where over 10,000 fishing vessels are taking shelter for safety.