From USA TODAY:
…Five months after the March 11 earthquake, less affected areas of Japan largely are back to normal. Major highways, bullet trains, power and water utilities have been restored. The economy contracted at a slower pace from April through June than the consensus forecast expected, and it may rebound this quarter as supply chains are restored…….
The record-breaking earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan were so strong, scientists say, they rattled the Earth’s upper atmosphere, knocked icebergs off Antarctica and shifted northeast Japan’s coastline more than 10 feet eastward. Damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has become the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, the plant that blew up in the former Soviet Union in 1986…
Despite many bankruptcies caused by the disaster, Japanese firms are battling back, says Hiroshi Shiraishi, an economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo, who is encouraged by a faster-than-expected recovery of production levels in the world’s third-largest economy. But the long-term picture remains gloomy, he says, with little hope the disaster might prove a turning point for Japan…
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