The Major Effects of the Recent Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami on the Essay

The Major Effects of the Recent Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami on the Wold Economy - Essay Example This study aims at gaining insights into the impacts of Japanese tsunami and earthquake upon the global economy especially the East Asia (Isidore, 2011). The Main Focus It is noted that Japan was facing certain kinds of structural pressures before the earthquake and the tsunami took place. The main problem with the country was related to the ageing workforce and the nonexistence of the immigration of the workers for long-term. It is the workforce growth that can lead to the economic growth of the country and thus Japan was facing the problem of slow growth potential in the near future. The country also is also facing the burden of heavy public debt in the industrial world. The immediate recovery of Japan after such disaster took place has been an issue of concern. However, it can be noted that Japan has been one of the wealthiest countries; moreover, the country’s government along with the households and the businesses have the necessary resources to rebuild and thus recover f rom such disasters. In the country of Japan, since the nuclear plant was damaged to a great extent, therefore it was expected that the transportation system, as well as the infrastructure, would interrupt the flow of the gasoline, oil, water and other inputs into the process of production. When such disruption takes place, then it affects the other industries such as manufacturing and services as well. It was further expected that the economy of Japan in the second quarter of 2011 would contract. However, it was further predicted that the country’s situation would show certain improvements in the third and the fourth quarter of the year 2011 because of the restructuring efforts made by the government through its spending (Beckman, 2011). The above paragraph has been related to the impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on the country of Japan. However, now it is quite significant to understand the impact of such disasters on the overall world economy. 7 percent of the world’s output is contributed by Japan. However, the main point to be noted in this regard is that its contribution towards the growth of the overall economy has been quite less. The reason behind this is that of the trade surpluses in Japan. It has been expected by the analysts that the global economy would surely expand at a rapid pace by more than 3 percent in 2011. When the broad global (Gross Domestic Product) GDP is taken into consideration, then it can be mentioned that the effects of such disasters seem to be minimum. However, some of the countries may face the impact of such earthquakes and tsunamis of Japan in their countries. It has been evident that in Asia most of the countries depend upon Japan so that they can keep their plants operating. This can be explained with the help of an example. South Korea imports around 25 percent of the industrial parts from Japan. Therefore, if there is a long-term delay in the shipment of the goods from Japan, then it might affec t the production as well as the economic growth of that particular country. It was further apparent that the developing countries in the continent such as Latin America had indirect effects via wider impacts upon the global economic growth. Latin America does not have much of the trade links with Japan since China’s presence is increasing in the region. Latin America exports less than three percent of its total export sales to Japan.