Here is an interview with The Economist writer Greg Ip which was screened yesterday on the PBS Newshour.
Key points are:
* Japan is the key supplier for a lot of manufacturers – it is the world’s largest suppliers of flash memory and of semiconductors over the last few years
* Japan has virtually no natural energy resources of their own – very dependent on nuclear power
* Loss of nuclear power will increase demand for fossil fuels – with this and the unrest in the Middle East global oil prices will rise
* Japanese seem to have the funds to rebuild the economy as they are very high savers. They have bought all their government’s debt to date