Japan - Assessing the Impact

At this stage,it is difficult to assess the economic impact of the 11 March earthquake in north eastern Japan.Assuming the same proportional cost of rebuilding relative to that region’s GDP contribution as in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995(also known as the Kobe earthquake), the cost would be around 1%of Japan’s GDP,or USD 60bn.In terms of energy release,this earthquake was almost 2,000 times stronger than Kobe,but as the Sendai region is significantly different in structure to Kobe,this initial cost is an approximation.