TOKYO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - An approaching tropical storm triggered mudslides and floods in Japan, killing at least 10 people, local officials said on Monday, bringing weather-related deaths in northeast Asia to at least 34 people in the past few days. Tropical storm Etau is nearing Japan after typhoon Morakot battered the Philippines, Taiwan and China, killing at least 24 and damaging houses and farms.

More than 47,000 people in western Japan were told to evacuate, national broadcaster NHK reported, as the Japan Meteorological Agency warned of rain, floods or mudslides for many areas in western and central Japan.

"The water flashed by in just in a moment," a man told NHK. "I was holding on to the power pole and waiting for an hour and a half."

Several domestic flights and train services were cancelled and some highways were partially closed, NHK said.

At least nine people were killed and eight more were missing in Hyogo, western Japan, a police official said. He could not confirm how the victims had died.

In addition, a 68-year-old woman was killed when a mudslide hit a house in Okayama, western Japan, a local official said.

Tropical storm Etau may hit central Japan on Tuesday, an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

It was forecast to bring wind gusts to 126 kph (78 mph), heavy rain and high seas, the agency said on its Website (www.jma.go.jp).

Tropical storms and typhoons regularly hit Japan, China Taiwan and the Philippines in the second half of the year, gathering strength from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean before weakening over land.

Typhoon Morakot killed 11 people in the Philippines then whipped across Taiwan, killing another 12, mostly in swollen creeks, mudslides or boating accidents. [ID:nTP209388]

Morakot then battered China's populous east coast, collapsing more than 1,800 houses in the province of Zhejiang and killing at least one child, the official Xinhua news agency said. One million people were evacuated before the storm made landfall. [ID:nPEK332651]

The typhoon has caused an estimated 2.2 billion yuan ($322 million) in damage in China, Xinhua reported. In Taiwan, agricultural losses were estimated at T$1.14 billion ($35 million). (Reporting by Yoko Kubota and Colin Parrott in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Ralph Jennings in Taipei; Editing by Rodney Joyce) ($1=6.834 yuan, 32.80 Taiwan dollars)

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