Not business as usual in Japan

Osaka takes stock after massive quake forced factory lines to close.

Amagnitude 6.1 earthquake in Osaka, Japan’s second-biggest metropolis, killed four people, injured hundreds more and halted factory lines in an industrial area, government and company officials said yesterday.

Authorities were assessing the damage from Monday’s quake, which injured 380 people, according to the latest government estimate yesterday.

Live television footage showed toppled walls, broken windows and water gushing from burst mains after the quake hit Osaka, which will host next year’s Group of 20 summit.

Quakes are common in Japan, part of the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that stretches from the South Pacific through Indonesia and Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coast of North, Central and South America.

The epicentre of Monday’s earthquake was just north of Osaka city at a depth of 13km, said the Japan Meteorological Agency. The agency originally put the magnitude at 5.9, but later raised it to 6.1.

Collapsing walls killed a nineyear-old girl as she walked to school and an 80-year-old man, the government said.

An 85-year-old man died when a bookcase fell on him and an 81-year-old woman was found dead under a toppled dresser.

The quake struck a key industrial area of central Japan.

Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko said yesterday the quake had forced factories to halt operations but there was no information on the damage to facilities.

“We will closely monitor the impacts, including on supply chains,” Seko said.

Osaka-based electronics firm Panasonic Corp said it resumed some operations at three of its plants.

Daihatsu Motor Co, a unit of Toyota Motor Corp, stopped daytime operations in its factories in Osaka and Kyoto and at one plant in Shiga while the company checked for damage.

Tractor maker Kubota Corp said it halted two plants in the area, while air conditioner maker Daikin Industries Ltd suspended operations at two plants. –