The recent earthquake followed by the tsunami that struck Japan and the nuclear catastrophe that followed have taken a huge toll of that country. In terms of people dead, missing or wounded; in terms of property destroyed and the setback it has meant to businesses and the economy as a whole. Nilan Singh while taking a look at the broader picture briefly asseses the likely impact on the gems and jewellery industry.
The disaster that struck Japan was beyond a nightmare, beyond anything that could be imagined. Images of the aftermath of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that invaded North East Japan, are still rife in out minds. By mid April, the Japanese authorities had officially declared that 13,456 persons were dead; 15,150 missing and about 4,902 people injured; and that more that 139,020 have been displaced by the disaster.
The nuclear crisis triggered at the Fukushima plant by the twin natural calamities still haunts Japan. After weeks of battling it out, Japanese authorities raised the severity of the nuclear crisis from 5 to 7 – the maximum level. This put it on par with the world's worst nuclear disaster, which hit the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine in 1986. Analysts feel that the world is not yet apprised of the actual scale of the nuclear problem or its likely fallout.
By about mid-April, the Japanese government lowered its assessment of the country's economy for the first time in six months on the back of the serious impact of the earthquake/tsunami on exports, production and consumption. "Although the Japanese economy was picking up, it shows weakness recently, due to the influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake," the cabinet office said in its monthly report. This came a few days after the IMF cut its growth forecast for Japan.