The Japan Coast Guard dispatched four aeroplanes and two patrol boats a day after receiving a radio distress signal from the Jade Princess, which was sailing from Malaysia to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

"But we have found neither the missing people nor the yacht as the sea remains rough due to the typhoon," a coast guard official said from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

Typhoon Jangmi lashed Taiwan with heavy rain and strong winds on Monday as it moved offshore, leaving two dead and forcing the closure of schools, offices and financial markets in Taiwan, officials said.

Jangmi, meaning "rose" in Korean, was packing gusts of up to 191 kilometres (115 miles) per hour and was heading towards the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.

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