TOKYO -- Powerful typhoon Bualoi has begun to lash Japan's Ogasawara Islands about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo with strong winds and rough seas, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

The agency is calling for residents of the islands to be on their guard against landslides and high waves. It said swells brought by the typhoon could also cause rough seas in some areas from northern to western Japan on the Pacific Ocean side of the country through Oct. 25.

As of 11 a.m. on Oct. 24, Typhoon Bualoi, the 21st recorded this year, was located about 30 kilometers northwest of Chijijima, an island in the Ogasawara chain, and was heading north at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour. It had a central atmospheric pressure of 950 hectopascals, with a maximum sustained wind speed near its center of 45 meters per second (162 kilometers per hour), and a maximum wind gust speed of 65 m/s (234 kph).

The typhoon is later expected to head north and then north-northeast before being downgraded to an extratropical cyclone in an area to the east of Japan in the predawn hours of Oct. 26.

The agency warned that some areas of the Ogasawara Islands could be hit with heavy rain of about 30 millimeters per hour, as well as thunderstorms. It said rain could have already loosened some land.

(Mainichi)

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JMA warns of landslides, high waves as Typhoon Bualoi strikes islands south of Tokyo - The Mainichi