Some Financial Aspect of the 2011 Great Disaster of Japan
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that occurred along Pacific coast lines northeast of Tokyo on March 11, 2011 destroyed 400,000 houses and buildings as well as more than 400,00 cars and vehicles, taking on about 20,000 lives.
It also caused loss of cash of residents. But after the disaster, 5,135 million yen ($51 million) cash was found in the disaster-stricken areas. Of this amount, banknotes and coins worth 4,356 million yen ($43 million) were returned to legitimate owners. The amount of money given to those who found by law totaled 160 million yen. The related prefectures legally received about 500 million yen, for example, in such cases as finders were officials of municipalities.
In addition, there are still 10,000 financial items today kept by the police since legitimate owners are unknown.
The disaster also caused various crimes. Thieves invaded houses, offices, filling stations, etc. to steal money and other assets. The total amount of damage from this sort of crimes reached 100 million yen ($1 million) in two weeks after the tsunami. ATMs of banks were also targeted by robbers. In three months after March 11, total 684 million yen ($ 6.8 million) was stolen from banking machines.
Especially in Fukushima Prefecture where residents who lived within 20 km of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were forced to evacuate their houses and offices by order of the Government, many cases involving sneak thieves were reported.
However, this Great Disaster of 2011 Tsunami/Earthquake/Nuclear Accident did not hit the total Japanese economy so hard as the 2008 Financial Crises triggered by the Lehman Shock as the following figure about Japan's real GDP shows.
If you lost cash in a natural disaster such as a great tsunami, you may still get it back through kind hands and the police. But if you lost money in the global financial crisis, you would lose it forever.
While running away from a great tsunami, no one minds cash he has left in a car or a house. But, in a global financial crisis, no matter how much you worry about you financial assets, most of them should be lost in a black hole of the global monetary market.
Any way, as the US was double hit by the 2001 Terror and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Japan was also double hit by the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the 2011 Great Tsunami Disaster. And what is worse, Japan is still suffering the aftermath of the Fukushina Daiichi Nuclear Accident that is partly a man-made disaster.
And in the near future, Russia and China might have to face very critical crises to be tested on their integrity and justice.
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Act 5:15 Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.