(CNN) Lekima briefly strengthened into a super typhoon on Thursday as it passed across the southern Ryuku islands of Japan, before weakening on its trajectory toward China.

With powerful winds of 220 kph (134 mph), the storm is no longer "super" but it is still very strong -- the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane.

The worst conditions so far have been felt in the southern Ryukyu Islands of Japan, with the eye of the storm passing very close to Miyakojima, a city of about 54,000 people. The chain of islands includes Okinawa, with a population of 1.4 million people.

The storm has now begun to pull away from the islands, which saw over 200 millimeters of rain (nearly eight inches) and counting. Winds have gusted as high as 168 kph (104 mph).

Ahead of the storm's arrival in Japan, Mitsugu Noguchi of the Japan Meteorological Agency's Okinawa office had warned that a "serious natural disaster is possibly to take place."

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