The aftershock of the Japanese Tsunami

Last Friday an 8.9 earthquake caused a Tsunami to land on part of the Japanese coastline. Tsunami comes from the Japanese language and means harbour wave. This wave destroyed everything in its wake for up to 10km inland, as it travelled at the cruising speed of a jetliner and pounded the land with a wall of sludge and debris.

When the 3rd largest economy in the world gets hit we all feel the aftershock. One days trading in the UK saw £30B wiped of the value of FTSE shares, and insurance claims against British companies are expected to be of the same magnitude. Supply of Japanese high tech specialist parts have now become hard to come by, and sales of luxury exports into Japan have plummeted.  Japan is now expected to stay in recession and its trade deficit to increase.

Added to this the potential for a nuclear meltdown as radiation continues to leaks from Japan’s nuclear plants, and you can see why throughout the world people are asking questions about our reliance on Nuclear fuel.

But all this pales into insignificance when you consider the magnitude of the loss of life and human suffering. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese people at this time.