It said a total of 1.12 million people in Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures had been ordered to evacuate to shelters, and that landslides had swept away several cars and buried a house in Kagoshima
The rains are the deadliest weather-related disaster in over three decades in Japan
An official said 170 patients and staff had been evacuated while public broadcaster NHK later said about 80 people were still stranded
The Japanese archipelago has been pounded by heavy rain since Thursday