At least 30 people have been killed and 177 injured after Typhoon Hagibis battered Japan, leaving a trail of carnage in its wake.

At least 15 people were still missing after the typhoon triggered mudslides and flooding over wide areas after making landfall on the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka last Saturday evening.

More than 110,000 police officers, firefighters, Coast Guard officials and Self-Defence Force personnel were pressed into search-and-rescue operations, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an emergency Cabinet meeting.

The storm brought the Greater Tokyo region to a standstill last Saturday, but the subway system was up and running by yesterday morning and stores quickly reopened. In less cosmopolitan parts of Japan, however, the damage was greater. The typhoon knocked out power to half a million homes at its peak.

It headed out to the Pacific Ocean early yesterday morning.