Japan storm leaves four dead, 11 missing

Nearly a dozen people were missing today after a tropical storm pummelled its way through northern Japan.

Etau – rated a typhoon until it was downgraded on Friday to a tropical storm - hit Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido early today, but gradually lost steam as it moved off into the Pacific Ocean, the Meteorological Agency said.

Eleven people were missing today – up from four the previous evening – after heavy rains brought flooding and landslides to parts of Hokkaido, the National Police Agency said.

Earlier in its four-day rampage through the Japanese archipelago, the storm had caused four deaths and 77 injuries.

Torrential rains had flooded more than 700 homes, prompting evacuations and disrupting transportation.

Etau, which means “storm cloud” in the language of the Pacific island of Palau, struck Japan’s outlying southern islands on Thursday and started battering the main islands on Friday.