“………….The almost overnight transformation is likely to continue for months, if not years. The hot summer ahead is expected to further strain the nation’s electrical network, leading to more disruptive blackouts that make it hard for business to be conducted the Japanese way, face to face and often into the night. The vast entertainment industry that greases corporate Japan, including sushi bars and cabarets, is likely to be deeply hurt.
As effective as the self-restraint has been — conservation measures have allowed Tokyo Electric Power to cancel some planned blackouts — the continued scaling back is likely to have a corrosive effect on Japan’s sagging economy. While the government will spend heavily to rebuild the shattered prefectures to the northeast, consumer spending, which makes up about 60 percent of the economy, will probably sink; bankruptcies are expected to soar.
Had the disasters hit a more distant corner of the country, things might have been different. But because Tokyo has been directly affected by the blackouts and the nuclear crisis, the impact has been greater. The capital and surrounding prefectures, where so many companies, government agencies and news media outlets are located, account for about one-third of the country’s gross domestic product. …………”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/world/asia/28tokyo.html?hp
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