TOKYO: Tens of thousands of rescue workers were searching Monday for survivors of powerful Typhoon Hagibis, two days after the storm hit Japan, killing at least 35 people.

Hagibis crashed into the country on Saturday night, but brought hours of heavy rains even before it arrived, causing landslides and filling rivers until they burst their banks.

More than 110,000 rescuers, including 31,000 troops, worked through the night and into Monday, searching for people trapped by the disaster.

Local media said at least 35 people had been killed, with the Kyodo news agency reporting nearly 20 people were missing. 

While Hagibis, one of the most powerful storms to hit the Tokyo area in decades, had winds of up to 216 kilometres per hour, it was the heavy rains that caused most damage, with 21 rivers bursting their banks.

Rescue efforts were continuing on Monday morning, with local television showing soldiers rowing a rescue boat through floodwaters in Fukushima, while elsewhere workers removed dirt with machines.

The death toll mounted throughout the day Sunday as bodies were recovered from flooded homes and cars, buildings caught in landslides, and swollen rivers.

The dead included a worker whose car was overcome by floodwaters and at least five Chinese crew members aboard a boat that sank in Tokyo Bay on Saturday night.

On Monday morning, some 57,500 households remained without power, with 120,000 experiencing water outages.

The disaster left tens of thousands of people in shelters, with many unsure when they would be able to return home.

"Everything from my house was washed away before my eyes, I wasn't sure if it was a dream or real," a woman in Nagoya told national broadcaster NHK. "I feel lucky I'm still alive."

The storm brought travel chaos over the holiday weekend, grounding flights and halting commuter and bullet train services.

By Monday, most subway trains had resumed service, along with many bullet train lines, and flights had also restarted.