Early on Friday, Typhoon Bavi was nearing Japan's Sakishima Islands — a remote chain of islands near Taiwan — with maximum sustained winds of 162 kph , prompting locals to tape up windows and drape windproof nets across homes and shops.
Airlines cancelled dozens of flights in the region, including for Saturday.
In Ishigaki, one of the islands in the Sakishima chain popular with tourists, residents stocked up on supplies. Some public beaches and coastal parks and the local ferry terminal appeared closed.
In neighbouring Taiwan, financial markets closed for the day, with a large swathe of the north and east also off work. The Taipei city government set up stations for residents to collect sandbags.
Bavi is not expected to make landfall in Taiwan but will dump huge amounts of rain on the island — some areas could get up to one metre of rain — starting late on Friday.
The government said more than 1,000 people have been evacuated, mainly from the mountainous eastern coast, and nearly 29,000 military personnel were on standby to help relief efforts.
"Although the typhoon has weakened slightly and has been downgraded to a moderate typhoon, its storm radius is large and it may still bring strong winds and heavy rain to many areas," Taiwan President Lai Ching-te wrote on his Facebook page.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, said it would delay the scheduled release of its June sales data from Friday to Monday.
Late on Saturday, Bavi is forecast to make landfall around the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, home to 10 million people.
