TOKYO, Oct 22: As the death toll rose from Japan's deadliest typhoon in two decades, experts warned on Friday that climate change could herald a stormier future.

A powerful typhoon that swept through the country this week killed at least 75 people, police said, and hopes were fading for 15 missing in floods and landslides. Typhoon Tokage - "lizard" in Japanese - was the record 10th to hit Japan this year. Normally, about three make landfall during the typhoon season that usually ends in late October.

Many people died in landslides set off by heavy rains while others were caught in flooding or were swept away by massive waves as the storm cut a swathe through southern and central Japan before heading out to sea east of Tokyo on Thursday.

"Global warming is likely to be part of this, but probably not all of it," said Satoru Saito at Japan's Meteorological Agency. "There's many things we still don't understand."

Takehiko Yamamura, president of private research centre Disaster Prevention System Institute, took a bleaker view. "Warmer sea water is something we may well see again," he said. "I believe many storms could come over the next few years.

The sheer size of the latest storm, which had a radius of about 500 km, accounted for much of the damage but experts said other factors were at work too. -Reuters