POWER RATIONING EXPANDING IN JAPAN

From Kyodonews.jp

Tohoku Electric Power Co. said Tuesday that it will implement electricity rationing in northeastern Japan from Wednesday to grapple with power shortages in the wake of Friday's killer earthquake, a day after Tokyo Electric Power Co. took the unprecedented measure in areas near the capital.

With the rationing set to continue through the end of April in eastern Japan, and longer in northeastern Japan excluding the quake-hit areas, concerns are mounting over its impact on the Japanese economy and people's everyday lives through the suspension of factory operations and reduced train services.

Power rationing in Tokyo and nearby prefectures got into full swing on Tuesday, leading some restaurants to serve lukewarm dishes and some shoppers to find supermarkets closed. At the same time, Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, tried to address some of the confusion, such as that regarding train services, witnessed the day before.

 If factories cant figure out if they are going to have a consistent power supply its going to be real difficult for them to reach pre-quake production quotas. If they have to cut back on their output due to rolling blackouts  it will have cascading effect throughout the Japanese economy.