Songda, a record seventh typhoon to strike the country this season, has injured 700 people since Sunday, according to public television network Japan Broadcasting Corp.

The typhoon was moving northeast in the northern Japanese main island of Hokkaido at a speed of 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Maximum wind speeds had dropped to 108 kilometers per hour from Tuesday's peak of around 140 kilometres.

But television footage still showed toppled trees smashing onto parked cars and wind ripping off house roofs and sending light trucks rolling along the streets in Hokkaido.

More than 136,000 households were without power in the region.

The death toll climbed after four people were confirmed dead in Hokkaido, some 900 kilometers north of Tokyo, police said.

A 50-year-old woman was crushed to death in her backyard while a man in his 60s was killed after being hit by a falling tree on the street, police said.

A man in his 70s died of head injuries after being hit by flying trees while the body of another man in his 70s was found in waters off Hokkaido, they said.

One elderly man remained missing in the region.

The dead also included nine Indonesian and three Russian seamen.

The Indonesians were among 22 Indonesians aboard a 6,300-tonne freighter which ran aground Tuesday off Yamaguchi, 800 kilometers west of Tokyo.

The coast guard was keeping up a search for the remaining 13.

About 60 kilometers to the east, three Russian seamen were found dead after the 3,249-tonne Cambodian-flagged freighter Blue Ocean, with an 18-member Russian crew on board, sank Tuesday at Mokuzai port in Hiroshima prefecture.

"Of the total crew members, one Russian seaman was still missing. The remaining 14 were safe," another coast guard official said, adding that some managed to swim ashore.

The typhoon would be downgraded to a temperate depression by Wednesday evening, the meteorological agency said.

Songda brought torrential rain and strong gusts to southern Japan's Kyushu areas Tuesday, cutting off power to more than one million homes in the region.

Typhoons and torrential rain have caused more than 200 billion yenbillion dollars) in losses to the Japanese farm and fishing industries, government officials said.

Damage to farm produce alone -- including rice, apples and pears -- reached 72 billion yen, according to a survey by the farm ministry.

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