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Honda Motor Co., which makes more than 80 percent of the automobiles it sells in the U.S. at North American plants, plans to reduce output on the continent starting tomorrow as parts supplies from Japan dwindle.

Employees were told today that the Tokyo-based company will cut production temporarily by varying levels at factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, said Ron Lietzke, a spokesman based in Marysville, Ohio. Honda doesn’t know how long the reductions will be needed, he said.

“It’s a fluid situation,” Lietzke said. The company relies on Japan for “a small number of critical parts,” including some needed for engines and electronics, he said, without being more specific.

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The government is considering limiting the use of electricity by major firms to deal with anticipated power shortages this summer as Tokyo Electric Power Co. has lost some of its supply capacity following the giant March 11 earthquake and tsunami, government sources said Wednesday.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry have called on industry groups in their respective jurisdictions to voluntarily map out and implement energy-saving measures.

But if such moves are not enough to cover the anticipated supply shortages in the summer, the government will start to restrict power consumption by large-lot energy users, such as companies operating factories during daytime peak hours, the sources said.

The government will decide on whether to go through with the restrictions by the end of April, they added. If the plan is realized, it would be the first time for authorities to put a cap on power usage by industries, since 1974 during the first oil shock.

Electricity shortages are expected to reach up to 15 million kilowatts this summer, raising concerns about massive blackouts in Japan.

At the request of the government, the Japan Business Federation, known as Nippon Keidanren, will consider plans to save power by industries at the first meeting of its special committee on quake disaster reconstruction to be held Thursday, sources at the nation's most influential business lobby said.

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Fallout Continues

The fallout from the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and still unfolding nuclear crisis is ushering in an age of self-restraint in a city known for consumerism. Not only are normally bustling Prada, Tiffany and Hermes shops empty -- when they’re not closed to save energy -- so are higher-end eateries.

Walking around Tokyo is quite an experience. While the place certainly isn’t a ghost town, it’s eerily quiet. It’s a good thing Tokyo is reasonably crime free. Otherwise, the fact that shops are only turning on a few lights and operating darkly would make the place a shoplifter’s paradise. Many elevators, escalators, heaters and televisions used for advertisements are off. So are other creature-comforts like toilet-seat warmers.

Many pachinko parlors that operate with a jamboree of buzzers, bells and whistles that flows loudly into the street are sound-free. The emptiness of the shelves at the city’s ubiquitous 24-hour convenience stores smacks more of Moscow, circa 1986, than Tokyo in 2011. Karaoke clubs are closing early, baseball games are being shifted to daytime and even Tokyo’s fabled cherry-blossom-viewing parties are being scaled back.

Got Toilet Paper?

Rolling blackouts have created a bull market for LED lamps and flashlights. Suddenly, department stores regret not having bigger camping-equipment sections. Really, who knew? Tokyoites are hoarding bottles of water and toilet paper is frustratingly scarce. My local reggae bar owner told me he’s stopped placing extra rolls in the bathroom. His patrons are stealing them.

And then there are the more headline-grabbing disruptions. Plants run by the likes of Asahi Breweries Ltd., Fuji Heavy Ltd., Meiji Holdings Co., Nikon Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have been shuttered. Tourists are canceling spring trips to Japan. Many of the foreigners who fled Tokyo have yet to return.

So, economists out there: Still think Japan will experience positive growth this year? That rebuilding efforts in the northeast will be enough to overcome the extent to which Tokyoites and their employers are living the modern-day equivalent of a late 19th century existence? I sure don’t.

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The ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has forced other Japanese utility firms to put off resuming operations at their nuclear power plants and invest more in safety measures.

Thumper wrote..

They will export the knowledge of how to make the components. 10 years away, irrespective of how Japan has faired, the world will keep spinning

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Subject: Takayama Report



Dear Family,
You have all no doubt read scores of earthquake/tsunami reports, so you are excused from reading all this, but wanted to share some of our experiences and adventures of late. Last night we drove back from Takayama/Shichigahama, the coastal area of “7 beaches”--two of which are the ones that we have enjoyed for many summers since mom and daddy first visited Takayama in 1956. It is also among the hardest hit areas by the tsunami. You have all seen horrific scenes on TV, and as Philip (P-chan) said after his first trip up there 3 days after the earthquake, the reality is far worse than the TV images. As we drove toward Tak through Tagajo, we saw cars stacked up on top of eachother, smashed up, smashed into buildings and fields. Mud and sludge everywhere. In and around Tak, in Hanabuchi and Shobuta (the two fishing villages on either side of Tak) piles and piles of rubble, once houses, that now that look like match sticks. I took a bunch of pictures, but don’t yet know how to get them from a camera onto an e-mail. (Yes, Andrew, I know you tried to teach me once, but I can’t remember : ) But you have seen P-chan’s pictures--I took one of the fishing boat on top of a house in Hanabuchi, and the place where Haruka’s cafe sat overlooking the water--which is now just a slab of cement--nothing there. The sign that says “Tsunami evacuation area” right by Hitomi San’s Totoya--a little restaurant and minshuku as well as her home--that got swept over by the Tsunami. Her house, which is pretty high up, is still standing, but she said the wave went completely over her and the house--totally terrifying. Almost everything around her is literally smashed. Endo carpenter’s house in Hanabuchi wiped out; Hidemasa whose "house" was just across from the surfer beach wiped out. Everywhere you look, utter, utter devastation. We counted over 20 containers from ships (big ones the size of the back of a semi-truck) on the beaches going toward Shobuta; a number of them on “our” surfer beach, and even one in the water by the regular Tak beach--which would seem impossible to get in, with the jacks out in the water. The water on that beach is all the way to the cement--there is no sand beach there.
But far more amazing than that is the attitude and spirit of the people--no complaining, no “Oh poor me”---just thankfulness for life, and determination to re-build---along with the feeling of being “shell-shocked”--which we all feel, with the continuing after-shocks each of which makes our hearts race, wondering if this is another big one, and if we will need to evacuate.
Between Wednesday and Friday, we were able to find (among the ruble) 7 different family units of people that we have known, and bring them food and clothing and hugs. Japan, which is not very much of a hugging culture, has gotten more huggy since this disaster. Also very amazing is the amount of clean up that has already been done--bags and bags of wet garbage piled high in neat stacks. Many roads cleared, even with rubble stacked high on both sides. Some roads that were cracked by the earth quake already repaired. We were able to go all the way to Sendai-Higashi on the expressway--which was closed when Philip went up shortly after the quake.
I had been able to call from Tokyo and reach Haruka (the young woman who ran the Hanabuchi Cafe) on her cell phone in the shelter where she and her family are staying, and asked her if there was anything in particular I could bring her, besides food and such. She said socks--so I went out to Uniqlo with Naomi and got a large quantity of men’s, women’s, and kids socks and underwear, and when other Tokyo friends heard that they brought stuff too, so it was fun to be able to bring those things besides necessary stuff like food and toilet paper and tooth brushes and such. By the way, one of the “shelters” for the evacuees, including Haruka, is the Kokusai mura, the place where Nelle and Ryan had their wedding reception.
We drove to Tak with two totally packed vehicles--Philip and Anda’s old Pajero and our van--full of food and supplies as well as water, kerosene, and gasoline--which are in short supply in that area. Also a generator, which we gave to Hidemasa to use until power is restored. The procurement of the generator is another story! We were in LA, having taken a pre-planned short trip to the US a few days after the earthquake. Hearing that generators were needed here because of massive power outages, I called United Airlines to see if they would allow me to bring one without paying overweight baggage fees for the relief efforts. But after several hours on the phone over a couple of days, I was only able to leave a recorded message with the right department asking permission. One hour before Lea was going to take me to LAX for my flight back, the person with authority called back and said I could bring a 100 pound generator (for free). That set Lea and I off on a wild adventure going from one Home Depot to another, trying to procure the right type, enroute to the airport. But thanks to Lea’s persistence, the mission was accomplished, and there will be a little more light and power in Shichigahama!
It was especially fun to bring fresh vegetables from Tokyo to Mrs. Sakamoto and her daughter, Mrs. Uchimi--because as you Tak people know, the Sakamotos have provided vegetables to the Tak community for over 50 years. I also gave some cans of corn to Mrs. Uchimi (Sakamoto daughter), and joked about how their family had supplied real corn to the missionary community for so many years, that it was nothing that we could give them these very small things. The older (parent) Sakamoto’s house is fine--it is high up, but the Uchimi house was wiped out.
For all of you who know Tak, basically all the Tak houses are fine--just a few things shaken by the earth quake, but for the most part high enough up so that they were spared the damage of the tsunami. Philip’s lower level got hit, and yesterday he was finding most of his power tools damaged by the water, and covered in sludge, but the upper part of their house is fine. Our house (#28)--former Kilbourne house--is about 15-20 meters up from the water, and one of the people who lives at Tak year-around (Rod) actually took a video of the tsunamis (3 of them of various sizes) from our point.
Who knows what to think about the radiation? We keep getting differing reports. Gaius continues to feel that the western media greatly sensationalizes things, and that the danger is less than the fear-mongers would have us believe. We did shut the car windows while driving through Fukushima on the expressway, but haven’t taken any other precautions!
This wonderful nation has been badly shaken--and continues to shake with the after shocks, but we look forward to what God will do here--and trust he will somehow, in his time, bring beauty out of the ashes of this disaster.
Much love to you all, Martha

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Nissan Motor Co. is anticipating that its output in April will be just over 30,000 units in Japan, about 40 percent of the over 80,000 units that the automaker had planned to produce before the devastating March 11 earthquake, sources close to the matter said Monday.

Output volume this month may not even reach the 40 percent line as Nissan continues to face parts shortages and insufficient power supplies amid rolling blackouts following the disaster.

Production will be especially hit at its plant in Tochigi Prefecture, where output is expected to total about 300 units, around 3 percent of the initially planned 10,000 vehicles, the sources said.

The plant sources engines from the Iwaki parts factory in Fukushima Prefecture, hit hard by the disaster. The engine plant in Iwaki is expected to resume full operations in early June.

Honda Motor Co. has said its output in April will be half the level it initially planned.

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TOKYO - Sales of new vehicles in Japan in March plunged 35.1 percent from a year earlier to 437,599 units due to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, marking the sharpest percentage point fall for the month due, industry bodies said Friday.

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If anyone is interested, here is Andy Xie's take on Japan:

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Toyota Motor Corp. is highly likely to halt all manufacturing operations at its factories in North America later this month due to parts supply disruptions caused by the March 11 earthquake disaster in Japan, company officials said Monday.

Toyota has already halted overtime production and operations on Saturdays at its North American plants following the disaster, but has been continuing to operate using existing inventories during normal hours.

The automaker has apparently judged that continuing production during normal hours would be difficult as parts manufacturers in Japan have been lagging behind in recovering output. The decision is likely to affect Toyota's new vehicle sales in the United States, which is its main market.

The scale and the duration of the expected shutdown have yet to be decided, but all of Toyota's 14 factories in North America could be affected, the officials said, adding that the decision is not finalized.