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Japan says China quake to cause economic damage
2008-05-13
A Japanese minister on Tuesday expected an economic blow from China's major earthquake, which shut operations of Toyota Motor Corp. and other Japanese companies. "It is unavoidable for the earthquake to have an impact on the Chinese economy," said Hiroko Ota, minister for state for economic and fiscal policy. "It is fully possible that this will affect local operations by Japanese firms," she said. Japan counts on China as its largest commercial partner and a key driver of the economic giant's steady recovery from recession in the 1990s. The Japan Business Federation said in a statement that the lobby would "do its best to offer swift cooperation in the quake-affected areas." A Toyota joint venture manufacturing small buses and sport utility vehicles in Sichuan's capital Chengdu has been shut down since Monday's killer tremor. "We haven't received news of any serious damage to the facilities or any casualties among our employees there," said Kayo Doi, a Toyota spokeswoman in Tokyo. "But we still don't know when we can resume operations as we are still conducting safety checks," she said. The venture, Sichuan Faw Toyota Motor, produces 13,000 vehicles a year and has 1,600 employees. Toyota, which is expected this year to overtake General Motors as the world's largest automaker, has production capacity in China of 643,000 vehicles a year. The quake damaged a factory of Hitachi Ltd.'s Chengdu joint venture, which has 200 workers producing inverters, but the company continued some operations. Seven and i Holdings, Japan's largest supermarket and convenience store operator, said its three Ito-Yokado supermarkets in Chengdu resumed operations following a one-day suspension and clean-up. "We resumed sales this morning as we have requests for water and vegetables from our customers," said spokeswoman Kazuko Itakura.
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