About 2,000 people in western Japan have been advised to evacuate due to threats of landslide and flooding caused by an approaching typhoon on Tuesday.

As of 4:00 p.m. local time, Typhoon Guchol was located around 100 km southwest of Shionomisaki in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, moving northeast at a speed of 65 km per hour with maximum sustained winds of 126 km per hour near the center and gustiness up to 180 km per hour.

The powerful typhoon, the season's fourth, is expected to land in Japan's western region of Kinki on Tuesday evening and then move northeast across Honshu Island, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

On Tuesday afternoon heavy rain poured in several prefectures in the Shikoku and Kinki regions and is further expected in a wide area of Japan during the 24-hour period through Wednesday. The meteorological agency warned that the Kinki region would receive 400 mm of rainfall and the Tokai region 500 mm.

According to the country's public broadcaster Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), more than 1,600 people in Wakayama prefecture, where the typhoon is most likely land later in the day, have been evacuated since early afternoon. In other prefectures including Kochi and Hyogo, about 300 people have been asked to leave home due to possible mudflow or landslide.

The approaching typhoon disrupted transportation, with 400 domestic flights mainly to and from western and southern airports in Japan canceled, and some services of intercity trains operated by JR West and JR Shikoku suspended.