A livestock ship sailing from Napier to China with two New Zealand crew members on-board is missing off the coast of Japan.

Japan's coast guard was on Thursday afternoon searching for Livestock carrier Gulf Livestock 1 carrying 42 crew members and 5,800 cows that made a distress call off a southern Japanese island in seas roughened by a typhoon, New Zealand Herald reports.

Rescuers safely plucked one crew member from the sea. The person rescued from the water was not believed to be one of the Kiwis.

More information on the ship's distress wasn't immediately available.

The ship sent a distress signal at 4.45am New Zealand time yesterday in the East China Sea, an area being affected by Typhoon Maysak.

NHK World Japan reported that the Panamian registered cargo ship issued the distress signal at 1:40am Wednesday Japan time from a ship about 185km west of Amami Oshima in southwest Japan.

The ship left Napier on August 14 carrying 5,867 cows and reportedly 43 crew members including two people from New Zealand, 39 from the Philippines, one from Australia and one from Singapore.

The ship was on route to the Port of Jingtang in Tangshan, China, with an estimated journey of about 17 days. It was expected to arrive in China on September 3.

NHK World reported that at shortly before 7pm Wednesday Japan time Japan's Defense Ministry said crew on a patrol plane spotted a lifeboat-like object in the waters near where the signal was sent and a person in a lifejacket nearby.-Photos: Japan Coast Guard/NZH

One person is pulled from the sea near where a live cattle export ship is missing off the south coast of Japan.

The Gulf Livestock 1 departed Napier on August 14 and is now reported to be missing.

China-bound cattle ship with 42 crew missing