A powerful typhoon forced auto giant Toyota to halt production at 11 of its 15 plants in Japan on Wednesday, the company said.

"The second (afternoon) shift is stopped. (It is) not resuming today. No decision has been made for tomorrow," company spokesman Dion Corbert told AFP.

The affected plants are all in Aichi prefecture in central Japan, which sits in the expected path of Typhoon Roke.

Toyota's remaining four plants in Japan are in Hokkaido, Tohoku and Kyushu, and are not expected to be affected by the storm, Corbert said.

At least four people are known to have died across Japan so far and more than a million have been warned to leave their homes over fears that torrential rains will cause widespread flooding.

By Wednesday morning, the storm was off the Kii Peninsula in central Wakayama prefecture, a region hit badly by Typhoon Talas earlier this month, the deadliest storm the country has seen since 1979.

Talas triggered landslides and dumped heavy rain in the area, raising fears that the downpours expected Wednesday could further weaken already fragile land.

Roke is expected to make landfall in the Kanto area during the afternoon before moving northeast, possibly towards Fukushima and the nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

"The typhoon will move north at high speed," an agency official told a news conference, warning of continued damage and impact on transportation systems.

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