Japan sends in troops after deadly typhoon floods towns, threatens more damage

The storm sank a Panama-registered cargo ship that had anchored near Tokyo. The sunken ship was located early on Sunday. A newspaper reported that at least five of the 12 crew were dead and three were missing.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an emergency ministerial meeting and sent the minister in charge of disaster management to affected areas. The Japanese government also set up a task force to deal with the damage.

"The government will do everything in its power to cooperate with relevant agencies and operators working to restore services as soon as possible," the prime minister said.

NHK said overflowing rivers could inflict more damage as waters had reached dangerously high levels.

With thousands of homes without power, Japanese feared a repeat of the weeks-long power outages after last month's typhoon that hit east of Tokyo.

In Fukushima, north of the capital, Tokyo Electric Power Co reported irregular readings from sensors monitoring water in its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant overnight. The plant was crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Landing restrictions at Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports were lifted but more than 800 flights were cancelled for the day, NHK said. Some Shinkansen bullet train services to the worst-hit areas were also disrupted.

Reuters