(Bloomberg) -- A tropical storm formed over the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines and the system may strengthen into a typhoon as it heads for the southern islands of Japan, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.

The eye of Tropical Storm Fengshen, the seventh storm of the northwestern Pacific cyclone season, was 608 kilometers (378 miles) east of the city of Surigao on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines at 2 a.m. local time today, the center said.

Fengshen's maximum sustained winds were blowing at 83 kilometers per hour, with gusts to 102 kilometers an hour, the center said. Waves in the vicinity of Fengshen's eye were 5 meters (16 feet) high. The storm was moving west at about 15 kilometers per hour.

The storm is forecast to turn to the northwest and head for the southern islands of Japan. The storm's sustained winds are expected to strengthen to 102 kilometers an hour later today and Fengshen may become a typhoon by 2 a.m. tomorrow, navy forecasters said.

Fengshen is the name for the God of Wind in China, according to the Web site of the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names used for tropical storms and typhoons that form in the northwest Pacific.

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