Great East Japan Earthquake estimated as most expensive natural disaster on record
Economic damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake in the first half of 2011 alone has been estimated at around 210 billion dollars by a German reinsurance company, the most economic damage from a natural disaster on the company’s records and much more than Hurricane Katrina, the previous record holder.
According to Munich Re, which has kept records of natural disasters since the 1979 eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, the total economic damage worldwide from natural disasters is estimated at around 265 billion dollars (21 trillion yen) in the first half of 2011, with the Great East Japan Earthquake accounting for around 80 percent of that value. The company estimates damage from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina at 125 billion dollars.
Munich Re says that economic damage globally from natural disasters in the first half of 2011 was over five times the average for the previous 10 years. Although the number of natural disasters worldwide in that period was 355, less than the 10-year average of 390, the amount of losses was ballooned by the Great East Japan Earthquake, as well as the New Zealand earthquake in February.
Normally, damage from natural disasters is higher in the latter half of the year, when more hurricanes and typhoons strike the Northern Hemisphere. Until now, the greatest estimated economic damage worldwide across a year was 220 billion dollars in 2005.
Mainichi Shimbun , July 20, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110720p2a00m0na021000c.html
March Quake Caused Huge Tsunamis along 300-Kilometer Coastlines
Tokyo, July 17 (Jiji Press)—A group of Japanese researchers has reported that the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 triggered tsunamis of 20 meters or higher along the coastlines stretching some 300 kilometers in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures.
The group, comprising experts in tsunami engineering and geophysics, found this after surveying traces of tsunami at more than 5,000 locations along the Pacific coasts extending from Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, to the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa.
Nobuhito Mori, associate professor at Kyoto University and one of key members in the group, said that tsunamis of 10 meters or higher were recorded along the 430-kilometer coastlines from Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, to the eastern prefecture of Ibaraki.
In the Aneyoshi district of the city of Miyako, Iwate, tsunamis ran up the ground to reach a point 40.4 meters high, a record tsunami runup height in Japan, he said.
In the Sendai plains in Miyagi, 10-meter or higher tsunamis travelled more than 5 kilometers inland from the coast, according to the report.
Jiji Press, July 17, 2011
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011071700070
Income, corporate tax hikes mulled
The government is working on a roughly \10 trillion tax increase to pay for earthquake and tsunami relief efforts, probably by raising the income and corporate taxes, according to government sources.
Details remain sketchy, such as how long the tax hikes would last and when they would begin, but ideas now being floated include making large increases for the first few years and shrinking them in stages afterward.
The government held a ministerial meeting Thursday, the second of its kind, to discuss possible sources for quake relief funds and hammer out the duration of intensive reconstruction work and the details of potential tax hikes.
Afterward, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said no specific plans were decided during the meeting, adding he hopes the discussion will be complete by the end of July.
During another meeting later in the day, the ministers decided to set the next decade as a restoration period for the March disaster while spending some \19 trillion during the first five years to finance relief efforts and cleanup work, officials said.
Added to the amount will be the cost of rebuilding towns and cities devastated by the tsunami, they said, adding that the total spending over the next decade will reach more than \23 trillion.
The government has allocated \6 trillion in reconstruction-related expenditures in the two extra budgets so far, one of which has been enacted and the other expected to win Diet approval Friday.
Kyodo, July 22, 2011
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110722a4.html
Japan Mulls 10-Trillion-Yen Tax Increase to Fund Reconstruction
Tokyo, July 20 (Jiji Press)—The Japanese government is considering implementing a temporary tax increase worth about 10 trillion yen to finance reconstruction efforts following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The government believes that the central and local governments need to spend some 20 trillion yen together on reconstruction programs.
Of the total, about 6 trillion yen has already been earmarked under the first and second supplementary budgets. The first extra budget was enacted in May, while parliament is expected to pass the second extra budget Friday.
Of the remainder, the government is considering covering several trillions of yen by cutting existing spending plans and selling state assets.
The government is considering increasing income, corporate, tobacco and liquor taxes to raise 10 trillion yen in additional revenue.
Jiji Press, July 20, 2011
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011072000973