Police said 33 people were injured.

Typhoon Stella, the first of the season to directly hit the Japanese archipelago, struck the main island of Honshu early Wednesday and then moved to Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most main island, the meteorological agency said.

In Hokkaido, the typhoon, with winds gusting up to 90 km per hour, killed two elderly men on Wednesday, police said.

A 72-year-old man died in hospital, after falling from his roof while fixing it. Another 66-year-old man was killed after being hit by flying debris, they said.

In Nagano, a seven-year-old girl was found dead in a river.

Police said she was washed away after being trapped in a car with her mother and her younger brother.

``The younger brother survived by managing to get out of the car, but we still have not found their mother,'' a police official said.

A 64-year-old man in Chiba,east of Tokyo fell from his roof and died in hospital, police said.

A farmer was found dead in the central Yamanachi after slipping into a swollen irrigation channel, police said.

The National Police Agency said 3,275 houses were flooded due to heavy rains brought on by the typhoon.

The agency said the typhoon's strength had gradually diminished to become a tropical storm by early Thursday.