A lifeboat which washed up on a Japanese island in the country’s south-west has been found by authorities searching for survivors of a live export ship feared to have sunk.

• The crew on the ship made a distress call last Wednesday while in the East China Sea
• The region has experience two typhoons in the last week, hampering recovery efforts
• Three of the 43 crew members have been found, one dead

However, the Coast Guard says it found no indication that anyone was on board.
The search will resume today for the 40 missing sailors two oh whom are Australians, including a 25-year-old Queensland vet Dr Lukas Orda.
It is a search that is becoming increasingly more desperate, with almost a week passing since the Gulf Livestock 1 made a distress call during Typhoon Maysak in the East China Sea.
A separate weather system, Typhoon Haishen, forced authorities to suspend their search on Friday.
The Coast Guard resumed the rescue operation by air on Sunday and found the lifeboat on the tiny island of Takarajima, which is home to about 100 people.
A crewman on the Gulf Livestock 1 was rescued by Japanese authorities after the ship sunk in the East China Sea.
Authorities have so far found two Filipino survivors and one dead body, which remains unidentified.
They told Japan’s Coast Guard that an engine cut out and a massive wave hit the ship, forcing it to capsize and sink.
The 139-metre vessel left New Zealand on August 14 and was bound for China, carrying 43 crew members and 5,867 cattle.On Tuesday, two patrol ships and an aircraft will be sent into the area to try to find more crew members.