Hokkaido was racing to restore power, flights and train services yesterday as the search for survivors continued after a powerful quake struck the scenic island in northern Japan.

There were conflicting accounts of the death toll from Thursday's magnitude-6.7 quake, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saying 16 had died, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga later revising the figure down to nine. Public broadcaster NHK put it at 12.

Another 24 people are still unaccounted for in the town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings was destroyed when a hillside collapsed.