Severe Tropical Storm Shanshan was over western Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, slowly moving north-northeast as of 1:00 a.m. Friday.
Weather officials said bands of heavy rain clouds have formed over Kagawa, Tokushima and Hyogo Prefectures. Tokushima’s Naruto City received an estimated 120 millimeters of rainfall in one hour.
Officials are urging people to take precautions against landslides, violent winds, downpours and overflowing rivers. Mudslide alerts are in effect across the county, from Kyushu to Kanto.
Heading into Friday evening, heavy rainfall is expected to continue in and around Kyushu, Tokai, Kanto-Koshin, Kinki and Chugoku.
The Shikoku region could get up to 400 millimeters of rain in a 24-hour window.
The storm has already caused devastation across Japan, injuring more than 90 people and claiming at least four lives.
Three people were killed after a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall struck a house in the central prefecture of Aichi. Emergency crews were able to rescue two others from the rubble.
Police in Kagoshima City received a report that a man in his 60s fell from a ship into the sea. The Japan Coast Guard said they retrieved a body in the area, but have not confirmed the identity.
In Miyazaki prefecture, there were over a hundred reports of wind gusts causing damage. Weather officials believe one of the gusts was a tornado touching down, based on the extent of damage and eyewitness reports.
Power company officials said that as of 1:00 a.m. on Friday, more than 133,000 households in the Kyushu region were without electricity.