UPDATE - 10.7.2018 2 pm in AEST
At least 126 people are now known to have died in floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain in western Japan, says the government.
It is the highest death toll caused by rainfall that Japan has seen in more than three decades.
Rescuers are now digging through mud and rubble in a race to find survivors, as dozens are still missing.
About two million people have evacuated the region after rivers burst their banks.
Original report 9.7.2018
66 Dead in Japan due to Flooding
Japan's government has set up an emergency management centre at the prime minister's office, with some 54-thousand rescuers from the military, police and fire departments being dispatched across the country.
Prime minister Shinzo Abe says the rescue situation is ongoing.
Emergency warnings for severe rain remain in effect for three prefectures, with 300 millimetres predicted to fall by this morning in parts of the smallest main island, Shikoku.
