Pic: Incredible shot from space of Typhoon Neoguri looming over Japan

This is the powerful storm that has led to calls for half-a-million people to evacuate from Japan's southern and western islands.

Japan is bracing itself today for the arrival of Typhoon Neoguri to its southern shores. The storm has thankfully eased in intensity in recent days but it will still bring gusts of more than 250kph when it hits Okinawa today, one of the most powerful typhoons to make landfall in decades. The city of Okinawa is 1,600km south of Tokyo, where the storm will travel later in the week but it is expected to have weakened considerably by then. However, the western and southern islands of Japan are expecting torrential rain and flooding plus very high wind and waves today. Astronaut Gregory Reid Wiseman is currently aboard the International Space Station and last night he captured a stunning shot of the typhoon, and the enormous eye of the storm.

The interesting shaped #eye of super #TyphoonNeoguri – 2155 GMT, 7 July pic.twitter.com/raNonr8qbK — Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid) July 7, 2014

One fisherman is missing after his boat was hit with the higher than normal waves and a number of people have suffered more minor injuries from falling debris. This picture from the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also shows the scale of the storm.