The latest casualty, Yukichi Takahashi, 80, collapsed late Monday at a shelter where he was staying in Oguni town of Niigata prefecture, 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Tokyo, local police said.

He was later confirmed dead after suffering a stroke.

The toll from the earthquake has been rising as residents -- particularly the elderly -- are worn down physically and mentally. Nearly 102,000 people are staying at 486 shelters after leaving their homes for safety amid hundreds of aftershocks.

Police said some 2,500 people had been injured after the first quake of 6.8 on the Richter scale late Saturday and subsequent strong tremors.

A 39-year-old woman, her three-year-old daughter and two-year-old son were still missing.

The earthquake was the deadliest to hit tremor-prone Japan since 1995, when 6,433 people were killed in the western city of Kobe.

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