Big waves driven by Typhoon Melor hit the coast of the town of Tatsugo in southern Japan on Wednesday. (Kyodo News/Associated Press)

A powerful typhoon with sustained winds of 160 km/h arrived on Japan's south coast on Wednesday, disrupting air and train travel.

Typhoon Melor is expected to hit central Japan, including the Tokyo area, on Thursday, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency.

The weather agency said Wednesday Melor could drop up to 50 centimetres of rain by Thursday evening and issued warnings for strong winds, heavy rains and high rains for much of south and central Japan.

In parts of Tokyo, local governments made sandbags available to residents who wanted to protect their homes against flooding from rivers and canals.

Melor is the latest in a line of tropical storms to batter Southeast Asia in the last few weeks, starting when Typhoon Ketsana dumped more than a month's rain on the Philippines in just 12 hours late last month.

Ketsana killed at least 422 people in four Southeast Asian countries, including 293 in the Philippines, 99 in Vietnam and 14 in Cambodia. The Red Cross reported that at least 16 people have also died in Laos and more than 100 people are missing.

Eight days later, Typhoon Parma triggered landslides and floods that killed 16 more people in the Philippines.

Melor has also played a role in the path of Parma, now a tropical storm, keeping it in place Tuesday just northwest of the Philippines and threatening to return as aid workers worked to distribute food and clear debris.

NASA said Wednesday that Parma has now moved south and west into the South China Sea, where it may make landfall on Hainan, the main island in a string of islands that comprise a Chinese province, or the Chinese mainland.

With files from the Associated Press