Japan's meteorological agency has issued another heavy rain emergency warning for parts of Yamagata Prefecture in the northeast of the country.

It covers the cities of Sakata and Shinjo, the towns of Funagata and Shonai and the villages of Sakegawa and Tozawa.

The emergency warning, the highest on the country's five-tier alert scale, came out at 11:40 p.m. on Thursday.

Agency officials are urging people in the affected areas to exercise maximum caution as flooding and mudslides are very likely to have taken place.

They say people should check their surroundings and move to evacuation centers or nearby sturdy buildings.

They are also calling on people to move to higher floors in their homes if they feel it is too dangerous to flee to evacuation shelters. In that case, they say it will be safer to stay in rooms facing away from mountain slopes.

The agency issued the same level alert for parts of the prefecture on Thursday afternoon, but it was later downgraded.