A powerful typhoon is slowly approaching the Japanese archipelago and may strike central and western Japan possibly on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Wednesday.

Typhoon Mawar was located around 500 kilometers west of Chichi Island in the Ogasawara islands chain as of 3 a.m. The island is about 1,000 km south of Tokyo.

It is traveling north-northwest at 15 km per hour, the agency said.

The typhoon has an atmospheric pressure of 950 hectopascals and was packing winds of up to 144 kph near its center. It was generating winds of more than 54 kph within a 280-km radius from its eye.

Source: Agencies