Heavy rains in western Japan have left two people dead and three others missing, police and rescue officials said Monday.
The rains, mainly drenching the Pacific coastal region of Shikoku, continued after Typhoon Namtheum weakened into a tropical depression over the Sea of Japan, the Meteorological Agency said.
The body of an 84-year-old woman was found in a river in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, while guests at lodging facilities in the towns of Matsuno and Hiromi were temporarily isolated due to mudslides, local officials said.
In Kisawa, Tokushima Prefecture, Morio Takemoto, 74, and his wife, Toshiko, 70, went missing early Monday after a landslide hit a warehouse on the hillside where they took shelter near their home, village officials said.
The local government requested the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces troops to rescue 55 people in 17 households.
Yuki Matsuoka, 13, from Kyoto, went missing while playing in a rain-swollen river in Tenkawa, Nara Prefecture. His father, Takeshi, 56, died trying to rescue his son.