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The number of people unaccounted for after Japan's New Year's Day earthquake more than tripled on Monday to 323 while the death toll rose to 168, The Daily Star reported, citing the local authorities.

A heavy dumping of snow meanwhile complicated relief efforts a week after the 7.5-magnitude quake, with more than 2,000 people still cut off and many others lacking power or forced to take shelter in crowded emergency sites.

A new list published by Ishikawa prefecture in central Japan on Monday showed the number of missing people soaring from 31 to 281 in Wajima, one of the worst-hit places where the quake flatted dozens of houses and a major fire devastated a large area.

In the prefecture's city of Suzu, a woman in her 90s managed to survive five days under the wreckage of a collapsed house before being saved on Saturday.

Days of rain increased the risk of further landslides, while the fresh heavy snow -- more than 10 centimetres (four inches) in places -- could cause more buildings to collapse under its weight, the regional government warned.

Around 18,000 households in the Ishikawa region remained without electricity on Monday, while more than 66,100 households were without water on Sunday.

For the 28,800 people packed into government shelters, many were also without sufficient water, electricity and heating, according to media reports.

The country is haunted by the monster quake of 2011 that triggered a tsunami, left around 18,500 people dead or missing and caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plant.