TOKYO, (AFP) - Typhoon Pabuk cut across Japan's Pacific coast Wednesday, leaving at least six dead and forcing more than 7,000 people to evacuate their homes, officials said. Fears of a direct hit on Tokyo proved unfounded as the capital was spared the worst of a storm which dumped 78.9 centimeters (31.5 inches) of rain on one village in western Japan withinf 24 hours.

The National Police Agency said that six people had been confirmed killed and 26 others were injured in typhoon-related accidents by 8:00 pm (1100 GMT). The eye of the typhoon moved over Tokyo Bay in late afternoon, as the first to hit the capital region directly since July 1989, the Meteorological Agency said. It was moving along the Pacific coast toward Sendai, some 300 kilometeres (190 miles) northeat of the capital, at 10:00 pm (1300 GMT), keeping its snail's pace of some 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour.

"The typhoon's power has weakened as it is moving offshore," said an official at the agency's information division. "But people on northern parts of Japan should stay alert because the storm system is carrying considerable rain clouds and packing strong winds of up to some 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour."

Torrential rain caused several major rivers to burst their banks, flooding at least 683 homes, the National Police Agency said. More than 7,000 people evacuated low-lying and seafront homes in the storm's path overnight, but many of them had returned home by Wednesday morning, local officials said.

The heaviest rainfall was near the village of Odaigahara, in Nara prefecture, about 400 kilometers (250 miles), west of Tokyo, where 789 millimeters (31.5 inches), fell in the 24 hours to midnight (1500 GMT) Tuesday.

Pabuk, which means "giant catfish" in the Lao language, was advancing slowly, due to a high pressure system hovering over the Pacific Ocean east of Japan. The storm caused widespread cancellation of flights and bullet train services for a second day. It also caused two automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd., to temporarily stop production at factories in the path of the typhoon.

Pabuk was the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan since last September, when typhoon Saomai left nine dead and dumped record rainfall, flooding 74,000 homes without even making landfall on Japan's main island of Honshu.

Both storms pale in comparison to the Ise Bay Typhoon of 1959, which left nearly 5,100 dead or missing around the city of Nagoya in central Japan.