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.
Several embassies advised their citizens to leave affected areas, including Tokyo, and some multinational companies either told staff to leave or were considering relocating outside the city.
As officials urged people living near the stricken plant to stay indoors, residents in the capital, 150 miles to the south, began preparing for the possibility of a similar lockdown.
Experts were keen to stress, however, that only "minute" levels of radiation had been detected in Tokyo.
Weather forecasters said winds near the atomic plant, which experienced a third explosion on Tuesday morning, were blowing in a south-westerly direction – towards Tokyo – but would move in a westerly direction later in the day.
People in the capital, home to 12 million, snapped up radios, torches, candles, fuel containers and sleeping bags, while for the fourth day there was a run on bread, canned goods, instant noodles, bottled water and other foodstuffs at supermarkets.
Retailers said the panic buying was reminiscent of the oil crisis in the 1970s.
The electronics firm Panasonic said it was increasing production of batteries, which were being bought in large quantities as far away as Hiroshima in the south-west.
Fears are rising that if the hoarding frenzy continues it will affect the ability to deliver emergency supplies to the disaster zone. "The situation is hysterical," said Tomonao Matsuo, a spokesman for the instant noodle maker Nissin Foods. "People feel safer just by buying Cup Noodles."
Foreign journalists covering the nuclear crisis, including reporters from the BBC and CNN, withdrew from the Fukushima area. On Monday, the German magazine Der Spiegel said its veteran war correspondent was being pulled out of Tokyo.
The fact that CNN, BBC and Der Spiegel are pulling their reporting out of Fukushima area shows you how serious this has become.
An early decline in Japanese shares picked up speed Tuesday afternoon, with the main index skidding 14.4% as the country's prime minister warned of a high risk of elevated levels of radiation from a reactor at the Fukushima nuclear-power plant after another explosion earlier in the day.
Bargain hunters were swept aside by the selling with the benchmark Nikkei Stock Average recently at 8257.56, its lowest level since April 2009 and at risk of further weakness as the Nikkei June futures contract continued to drop. The declines were exacerbated by news of a fire at Tokyo Electric Power's No. 4 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan and reports that radiation has spiked near the No. 3 reactor. The market was quickly dropping toward key support at 8000 points.
"Substantial amounts of radiation are leaking in the area," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on television. "We are making utmost efforts to prevent further explosions or the release of radioactive materials."
"All we can do now is just watch these developments at the nuclear power plants," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
Selling turned indiscriminate with the market on course for its worst showing since Oct. 20, 1987, when it fell 14.9%. "It's panic-selling. It's not only foreign investors—everybody just wants to dump shares," said Retela Crea Securities general manager Yosuke Shimizu.
Futures trading will be suspended if the main contract falls to 7780 points; recently it was down 14% at 8160, having briefly fallen below 8000 for the first time since March 2009. The Osaka Securities Exchange triggered circuit breakers several times to temporarily halt trade.
The Japanese nuclear reactor hit by the tsunami went into 'meltdown' today, as officials admitted that fuel rods appear to be melting inside three damaged reactors.
There is a risk that molten nuclear fuel can melt through the reactor's safety barriers and cause a serious radiation leak.
There have already been explosions inside two over-heating reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, and the fuel rods inside a third were partially exposed as engineers desperately fight to keep them cool after the tsunami knocked out systems.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said it was 'highly likely' that the fuel rods inside all three stricken reactors are melting. Some experts class that a partial meltdown of the reactor, but others would only use that term for when molten nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's inner chamber - but not through the outer containment shell.
As fuel rods melt, they form an extremely hot molten pool at the bottom of the reactor that can melt through even the toughest of containment barriers.
Japan is fighting to avoid a nuclear catastrophe after the tsunami. There was a hydrogen explosion at the reactor in Unit Three of the power station earlier today, in which eleven workers were hurt by the blast that was felt 25 miles away.
It's important to remember that the United States already experienced a nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. Yes the reactor did meltdown as this video discusses. (The part about how the reactor actually melted down begins at 3:40)
It was a core meltdown (about 50%) but it was not the China Syndrome where the molten core breaks through the containment vessel.
We are all just going to have to watch, wait and see.
Anime News Network is reporting that several shows are not airing episodes with disaster scenes due to the devastation caused by the March 11 earthquake. ANN has a overview of the series affected and you can view it here.
In the same article ANN also reports that other media in Japan is being affected as well.
Other media are affected in Japan as well. The game maker Yetiannounced that it will refrain from publicizing Root Double, the latest adventure game from Never7 -the end of infinity- director Takumi Nakazawa, due to the earthquake. The story of the game deals with the meltdown of a nuclear reactor.
The Japanese release of Feng Xiaogang's live-action Aftershock film about the 1976 Tangshan earthquake is being delayed from March 26 to an unspecified date. The release was already delayed from March 7 due to the February 22 earthquake in New Zealand.
This is a normal an appropriate response by TV networks to such a situation. It is NOT censorship, but rather, an appropriate response to what is going on in the country.
TOKYO -- Japan's top government spokesman says Tokyo Electric Power has held off on imposing rolling blackouts, but is calling for all to try to limit electricity use.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says that if necessary, the utility is prepared to go ahead with the power rationing, which was supposed to begin Monday in eight prefectures and cities, including parts of Tokyo. The decision to hold off on the cuts reflects an understanding of the profound inconveniences many would experience.
Many regional train lines were suspended or operating on a limited schedule Monday to help reduce the power load.
The planned blackouts of about three hours each were meant to help make up for a severe shortfall after key nuclear plants were left inoperable due to Friday's earthquake and tsunami.
The fact that rolling blackouts are even being discussed shows how you devastating this has been to the Japanese infrastructure. If rolling blacks are implemented it will be yet another hit to the economy still trying recover from the 15 years of economic stagnation.
Anime News Network has provided a continuously updated the list of anime, manga and game events that are canceled or rescheduled as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. You can view the full list here.
