Magnitude-8.9 Quake, Tsunami Strike Japan
By WSJ Staff
The strongest earthquake to hit Japan in at least 300 years rocked the country's eastern coast on Friday, triggering a 30-foot tsunami that violently engulfed cars and buildings in its path in northern Japan. Yumiko Ono has the latest from Tokyo.
TOKYO—The strongest earthquake to hit Japan in at least 300 years rocked the country's eastern coast on Friday afternoon, triggering a 10-meter (30-foot) tsunami that engulfed cars and buildings in its path in northern Japan, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and setting off tsunami warnings for 53 countries around the world.
Strong Quake Strikes Japan
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Police say 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the city of Sendai, the closest major city to the quake's epicenter, wire reports said. Another 137 were confirmed killed, with 531 people missing, according to the Associated Press. Police also said 627 people were injured, the AP reported.
The quake, one of the five biggest in history with a magnitude of 8.9, inflicted particularly severe damage to areas facing the northern Pacific coast but also caused mass panic around Tokyo, where workers evacuated buildings and power was cut off in 4.1 million households in and around the city. The natural disaster could derail the country's nascent economic recovery and increase Japan's already massive public debt, which is 200% of gross domestic product.
Japan Quake's Effects
See a map of post-earthquake events in Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.
The government issued an official emergency at one of the country's nuclear plants after the quake shut down its reactors and caused problems with the cooling system. Officials said there are currently no reports of radiation leakage.
Japan's government ordered the nation's military, police and emergency rescue personnel to head for the affected areas to help with the rescue missions. Some 8,000 personnel from the self-defense forces are being dispatched to the areas, along with hundreds of military aircrafts and ships, Yukio Edano, chief cabinet secretary, said at a press conference just after midnight local time.
The Japanese government is also coordinating with the U.S. forces based in Japan, which has agreed to dispatch the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, carrying fire helicopters, Mr. Edano said.
The central bank quickly announced that it has set up a disaster management team, headed by Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, and moved to ease any market worries by announcing that it was standing by to supply adequate liquidity to ensure stability in the country's financial markets.
The government will likely first use roughly 200 billion yen ($2.41 billion) in emergency funding left in the budget for the current fiscal year ending this month, several Finance Ministry officials told Dow Jones Newswires. They said the proposed budget for the new fiscal year contains another 350 billion yen for natural disasters and 810 billion yen in emergency funding for economic measures that can be called upon.
A tsunami warning issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii extended across the Pacific Ocean to include Central and South America. The first waves hit Hawaii in the early-morning hours Friday and reached the U.S. West Coast some time later.
Near Tokyo Station, after the quake hit, people streamed out onto the street, where the only option was to walk—buses and taxis weren't available and all trains were halted. Cell phone reception was down, causing long lines to snake around pay phones. The country's ports and airports had shut down and car-navigation systems indicated that almost every entrypoint to the highway was closed. Children walked home from school, some with protective head gear. People were huddled around televisions, trying to grasp the extent of the damage in Japan.
A devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake has struck Northern Japan. What are the implications for a country already coping with slow economic growth and political instability? WSJ's Jake Lee and Mariko Sanchanta, deputy Tokyo bureau chief, discuss.
Asia Today: Earthquake Hits Japan; Markets React
2:50Brad Frischkorn of Dow Jones Newswires and WSJ's Yumiko Ono give firsthand accounts of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on Friday and discuss market reactions and economic implications.
Tokyo Residents Shocked After Quake
1:21Aftershocks rippled through Tokyo, after a devastating earthquake hit Northern Japan. The Wall Street Journal spoke to the city's residents about the quake.
Tsunami Warning Issued In Hawaii
2:00Hawaii was one of many areas Friday that launched tsunami warning after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan. Video courtesy of Sky News.
Devastating Quake Hits Japan
2:00A huge 8.9 magnitude quake hits Japan causing a ten meter high tsunami along parts of the country's coastline.
Shaky Ground
Colliding plates under earth's surface make Asia Pacific one of the most tectonically active region on earth.
Your Tsunami Photos
Were you there when the earthquake hit Japan, or were you among those evacuated along Pacific coasts? Email us your photos of the damage, at yourphotos@wsj.com.
Akira Nomiya, 74, in Tokyo from Sapporo to visit his grandchildren, said the quake hit right after he stepped out of a monorail. He had walked an hour and half to reach Tokyo station. "It shook so badly that I couldn't keep standing as I stepped out of the monorail. People were just hanging onto the wall or sitting down on the ground. Girls were screaming on the platform."
"This is the worst quake I've ever felt that was based so far away from Tokyo," said Kiyomi Suzuki, 69 years old, who has lived in the capital city all her life.
Disastrous Japan Earthquakes
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In September 1923, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo.
See some of the most powerful earthquakes to have hit the island nation.
"A screen fell off my desk," said Varun Nayyar, an associate director at UBS Securities Japan, who hastily evacuated his building. "I don't understand why more people weren't leaving the building. I'm from India, and if an earthquake of this strength had hit there, a lot of buildings would have collapsed."
As helicopters buzzed overhead, a group of Chinese tourists huddled in front of a gate at the outer moat of the Imperial Palace, in Tokyo's Otemachi business district.
Amid the damage, some signs of normalcy returned. In Nihonbashi district of central Tokyo district, more than 100 people were waiting for buses, and TV broadcasts reported that the subway had restarted.
The U.S. military said about 12 commercial airlines were diverted to Yokota Airbase and officials were assessing how military assets could best be deployed to help. The official said there were no reported injuries to U.S. forces in Japan.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. stands ready to assist Japan. "The friendship and alliance between our two nations is unshakeable, and only strengthens our resolve to stand with the people of Japan as they overcome this tragedy," Mr. Obama said.
Houses swept by a tsunami smoulder near Sendai Airport in Japan.
China's government also offered support to Japan, with Premier Wen Jiabao expressing "deep sympathy and solicitude to the Japanese government and the people" and telling Prime Minister Naoto Kan that China is willing to offer aid.
Mr. Kan, embroiled in a political funding scandal that could derail his premiership, appeared calm and composed on national television in a blue emergency workers' outfit. He asked the public to remain calm and said there was no danger of leaked radiation from nuclear plants. "We will secure the safety of the people of Japan and the government Japan will make every effort possible to minimize the damage," Mr. Kan said.
The Japanese auto industry was also hit by the earthquake, with Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. among those shutting plants, but one automotive analyst called the expected impact on the industry "manageable."
Nissan said five plants had been shut down immediately after the quake struck and small fires had to be extinguished at two of the plants. It was assessing its operations and those of suppliers to see whether production could restart Monday. Toyota shut down two assembly plants, while at Honda's plant in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, a factory ceiling collapsed, crushing a worker to death and injuring 30 others.
At Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi plant, three reactors shut down automatically as designed. The quake also caused diesel-powered generators used to cool the reactors to stop operating, leaving the utility company with a shortage of coolant to bring the reactors to a safe temperature.
Meanwhile, the three reactors at Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa plant in Miyagi, near the epicenter of the quake, also shut down automatically. A few hours later, the company said that it observed smoke coming from the building housing the No. 1 reactor at the plant.
French nuclear engineering group Areva said it hasn't been informed of any impact on its installations in the country. The company operates a joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp. specialized in nuclear fuel called MNF, as well as a zirconium making plant, Cezus, which is a fully owned unit of Areva.
All other Japanese power companies operating nuclear power plants in the country said their facilities are operating normally.
As mobile phones and landlines remained down in Tokyo, Twitter proved to be one of the best ways to contact loved ones and get updates on the quake. Unable to use cellphones, many used their smartphones to tune into television broadcasts and find out what had happened.
"It's very convenient being able to watch live TV when the phones are down," said Minori Naito, an employee of Royal Bank of Scotland in Tokyo. "Otherwise, we'd have no idea what is going on."
At 3:24 p.m., a large aftershock struck, which could be felt standing on the ground outside of buildings in central Tokyo. People gasped while looking up at skyscrapers swaying gently and construction cranes shaking violently atop half-completed buildings. Glass panels on the ground floor of many newer buildings shimmied but few appeared to break. Inside the office buildings, the shaking felt violent.
The yen and Tokyo stocks fell, while Japanese government bond futures gained. The quake was originally reported at a magnitude of 7.9 but was later upgraded to 8.9, apparently exceeding the 8.8 quake that struck off Chile's coast in February 2010.
In Tokyo, hundreds of concerned office workers tried in vain to make calls on jammed cell-phone networks. Many of them gathered in open areas. The crowd appeared spooked by the sound of glass windows rattling in tall buildings.
Aftershocks were continuing, with one hitting magnitude 7.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
NHK Television reported that water could be seen rising over cars and pouring into warehouses at Onahama port in Fukushima Prefecture; in Iwate Prefecture a building was washed away, with boats and cars swirling around in the rising waters.
Smoke rising from Tokyo's waterfront Daiba district after the quake
Tokyo's major airports halted flights, but the city's Narita airport had reopened by Friday evening. The long-distance shinkansen bullet train service was suspended.
The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average closed 1.7% lower, the U.S. dollar rose to around 83.30 yen from 82.80 yen earlier and June Japan government bond futures ended 0.66 higher at 139.20 points, having hit an intraday high of 139.90 just after the quake.
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"The impact in the currency exchange market was a bit magnified because the overall market flow was thin. Now we'll pay attention to damage situations and if this is going to have a big negative impact on the domestic stock markets, the yen will keep weakening ahead," said Mitsuru Sahara, a senior dealer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
Analysts from Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service both said it was too early to say how the quake might affect the country's credit ratings.
Richard Jerram, a Singapore-based economist at Macquarie Securities with long experience in Japan, said that while the scale of damage was hard to predict, "the most obvious concern is the debt market. That's going to be the thing to watch."
Japan's political logjam won't likely be a problem, as "you're obviously going to get a cooperative approach," he said.
Susumu Kato, Credit Agricole CIB's chief Japan economist, said the post-earthquake reconstruction will weigh on the government's expenditure as well as its fiscal position, though he said it's still too early to offer any estimates.
The quake brings down a bookstore ceiling in Sendai
"The timing of an interest rate hike will likely be postponed further. I expect the earliest interest rate increase in Japan will be later than 2013," Mr. Kato said.
Insurer Swiss Re's Asia chief economist, Clarence Wong, said he doesn't expect the earthquake to have a severe impact on Japan's exports at large, given that many production lines of electronics producers have already been moved to other Asian countries.
However, he said domestic consumption will likely be hurt by the impact of the quake, "but post-crisis reconstruction will help drive gross domestic product upwards due to the increase of government spending."
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