The Economic Effect of Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster

On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:46 pm, a 9.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. This lead to a chain reaction of events leading to a tsunami, and a nuclear disaster as one of Japan's power stations leaked radiation. What are the global effects of these three disasters?

1. Higher Energy Prices

Energy prices are soaring because of the fear that the current unrest in the Middle East is affecting the global supply of oil. The disaster in the Fukusima power station highlights the need for Japan to now import traditional energy sources to replace any energy produced through its nuclear facilities- which will add to more demand for natural gas, and oil.

2. Infrastructural Renewal Projects

Both the earthquake and the tsunami have badly damaged much of Japan's infrastructure. Obviously a rebuilding phase would mean a government with a high debt problem, would have to invest in the reconstruction of those areas affected by this triple disaster. This could become the responsibility of the corporate sector, who dominate Japan's economy.

3. Banking and Insurance Losses

Whether Insurance companies pay out billions of dollars of claims due to the the earthquake and tsunami, remains to be seen, but the "man-made" nuclear disaster could become their liability. Japan's global banking and insurance industries may be forced to reinvest at home, depleting any global investments outside the nation.

4. Change of Government?

Before these three disasters, ordinary Japanese had lost their confidence in another scandal hit government. How the government reaction to these three disasters, and the subsequent rebuilding process, could change the public perceptions of their leaders- but in the long term, we could see more changes inside the top echelon of the Japanese government.

5. Environmental Perceptions

After the nuclear disaster in Fukusima, many people are questioning the wisdom of building nuclear energy plants in a quake zone. Depending on the radiation levels, and the area contaminated, a worldwide reaction to the use of nuclear energy could result in the ending of the Obama nuclear energy program in the USA, and even France's ambitious energy program.

6. Money Markets

Japan remains the worlds third largest economy, but also like the United States, one of its biggest debtors. The value of the yen could fall, as banks spend on reconstruction projects, whilst the Government may be forced to raise taxes to pay for them. Some large Japanese corporations may cancel or put on hold overseas projects, re-investing these funds in rebuilding the areas affected by the earthquake.

7. Asian-Pacific Growth

China has the money and the economy in this region, but Japan is a second player in economic terms. Japanese companies invest in much of South East and North Asia, whilst the government often sponsor education & training programs in the region. Japan's contributions in the area, could shrink, leading to some fears of reduced growth.

The natural disasters of the earthquake and tsunami, have led to the man made nuclear disaster, and destruction of part of a high tech nation.. Japanese are resilient, inventive and industrious people, and should overcome the hurdles of reconstruction. However this does have a short term effect on the global economy, and a long term effect on the future of the nuclear power industry.

Discover how you can survive and thrive during a period of immense economic change.

Records Management And Its Key Role In Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery

The UK's Records Management Society defines records management as, "the process by which a company manages all the elements of records whether externally or internally generated and in any format or media type, from their inception/receipt, all the way through to their disposal". In this digital age many organisations have set up comprehensive systems to ensure that electronic records are safely stored and backed up, with a plan in place should an unexpected crisis occur. This makes a great deal of sense since some estimates suggest that over 90% of businesses that have had a major data processing disaster will go out of business within 5 years.

These days most employees rely on electronic systems to do their job and lost or damaged files can spell disaster. However while IT systems are often carefully considered and any perceived emergencies planned for, paper records can frequently be neglected. It's difficult to pinpoint why this is except to say that perhaps manual records are considered unimportant when compared to expensive IT systems. Perhaps it is also the case that the sheer physicality of a paper record makes people (wrongly) believe it is not as important to safeguard as a computer file that could more easily be destroyed or corrupted. But to take this viewpoint is ill advised and short sighted.

Many organisations are under a legal obligation to keep certain records for a specified period of time. For example, financial institutions are now required to keep mortgage loan files for up to ten years after the loan has been repaid. Some medical records must be stored throughout the life of the patient and government institutions are now required to keep certain records for up to 50 years. Companies pay a high price for inadequate record keeping. In January 2003 The Bank of Scotland was fined £1.25m for breaching anti-money laundering rules on the identification of customers because it had failed to retain a copy of customer ID or a record of where it was kept. Often there is a legal requirement to keep the original paper document even when it exists electronically and in any action, the legal weight of records will be greater if the original version is produced. The Business Archives Council, which promotes the preservation of business records of historical importance, gives some other reasons why it can be prudent to save original documents.

Among their points are:

* Transparent corporate governance

Good record-keeping is an integral part of transparent corporate governance. The implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US has brought heightened scrutiny of an organisation's internal controls and practices. Trustworthy and accurate records serve as a bedrock for a company's reporting systems and ensure that they comply with best practice

* A key part of Corporate Social Responsibility

Caring for your heritage can be a key part of a Corporate Social Responsibility policy. Businesses have impacted on the lives of their staff, customers, shareholders and on the communities in which they operate. Business archives record how lives have been affected and changed. Some companies have publicly acknowledged that their own histories are an important piece in the jigsaw of the past and that they have a duty of care to their own archives. Making business archives accessible to the public is a real contribution to the community.

* Brand Building

The past can be used to support present performance. Archives add detail and depth to the public image of a company, differentiating it from the competition. Celebrating significant anniversaries or birthdays brings the long-standing nature and the achievements of the company to the fore. Historic information and images can also be used to support particular brands emphasising their position in the market place.

* A market for nostalgia

Exploiting your heritage can bring in revenue. Companies with well known advertising and packaging logos and images can licence their reproductions in all kinds of ways: the Guinness Toucan, Colman's mustard and Pears soap are just a few examples of well known images that bring in money for their owners.

* Education

Archives can be used within a business to inform and educate new recruits about a company's history and successes and pass on company values and principles. Archives can also be used as an educational resource by learners of all ages - some companies have produced very popular and highly regarded educational resources aimed at schoolchildren.

Clearly some of these points would not be put under the heading of 'Business Critical' but they do give further background as to why paper records can be so important.

The first rule of thumb for any organisation should be to asses their records according to the following criteria: business value, legal value, administrative value, historical value. The records can then be classed as vital, important, useful or non-essential. For those records deemed vital, the next step is to ensure that the storage of those records is an integral part of your business continuity plan and this means considering how and where they are stored. In exactly the same way as you would safeguard your IT systems and electronic records, consideration should be given to the possible disaster scenarios and how you can guard against loss or damage of those records.

For many companies the first obvious factor to think about is physical location. A Morgan Stanley Brokers note in June 2003 estimated that 70% of businesses are storing records on their own premises. Clearly this has huge implications should that office be subject to any kind of negative event. The horrific and devastating events of 9/11 showed all too clearly the potential risks of storing vital business records on site with many thousands of important documents destroyed. But if not on site then where is the best place? Some companies discount off site storage for those records that are deemed 'active' since they can be concerned that, should they need them, it will be a difficult process to retrieve them but any professional records management company should be able to deliver a document back to you within 24 hours and/or a scanned electronic version within a few hours.

If that is not acceptable then consideration should be given to copying the record and placing the original off site. The same factors apply to long term or 'inactive' storage. When deciding on an off site storage provider another important point to consider includes the environmental conditions of the site. Paper needs to be stored in cool consistent temperatures with a tight humidity band. It is worth reading through BS5454 since this sets the environmental standard for the storage of archival documents. Other points to assess include the risk of flood, fire or terrorist attack and, should any of these occur, how does the records management company in question plan ahead to handle it.

The National Archives previously known as the Public Records Office, has some of the country's most important records. Acting as the UK government's official archive, The National Archives looks after many thousands of documents containing 900 years of history from the Domesday Book to the present. The National Archives keep the majority of their material at their headquarters in Kew but they also keep a portion of their archive off site at DeepStore. They suggest that, in order to minimise damage to paper records, organisations should consider the following when planning for disaster.

* The best way to deal with potential disasters is to stop them happening. A first step is to identify and assess sources of potential risk in terms of the probability of an incident occurring, and likely impact if it does, including the costs of recovery.

* The process should include a detailed inspection of the premises and operational activities on site, and consultation with staff in each work area, particularly those such as caretakers or cleaners who have day to day responsibility for the building. It may also be necessary to consult specialist external sources of advice from individuals such as fire prevention offices, security advisers, insurance providers and a qualified conservator.

* Risk assessments should be reviewed at least annually to take account of changed circumstances and a systematic logging of any previous incidents will help to refine those assessments.

* In addition, it is important to be aware of temporary increases in risk, e.g. due to the presence of contractors on-site, extreme weather conditions, unusual activity in adjacent premises. Common sources of risk to paper records (of varying degrees of seriousness) include extreme weather, leaking roofs, plumbing problems, smoking, poor storage of inflammable materials, malfunctioning electrical wiring, lighting, arson or vandalism (up to half of UK fire are started deliberately), gas leaks, industrial accidents in nearby premises and terrorism.

Anna Buelow, Head of Preservation, at The National Archives gives some advice as to how a company should tackle a problem if, despite planning to avoid it, the worst occurs and paper records are damaged by water. She explains, "The prime concern in a disaster situation is to take what measures are necessary to salvage or limit the damage to as many of the records as possible. Ideally, the recovery process should start with a preliminary assessment of those documents in the affected area, designated as being the most valuable or important, identified by the first senior member of staff to come on site.

"For slightly damaged material it may be possible to air dry the items. This should be done in a large, well ventilated area and supervised by an experienced professional if possible. Anything that is saturated should be removed from boxes, packed in polythene bags and labeled. They should then be frozen and dealt with by a specialist agency."

And what about fire damage? Specialist company Harwell Restoration Services offer the following advice, "Depending on the design of a given building during a fire the smoke residues can travel great distances from the source of the actual fire, potentially creating widespread damage, even if the fire itself only affected one room. Within an office or library, this smoke can present an immense problem, as without restoration, the damaged paper will not safe or practical to use. Fire damage is restorable in the vast majority of cases. Tightly packed paper will not necessarily burn and damage, chiefly caused by smoke residue, is usually restricted to the outer edges, leaving the information inside the book block, archive box or file in tact."

So when considering off site records management companies it is important to make sure that they have first rate storage facilities. Look carefully at all their systems and ask lots of questions. It's also worth thinking about where they are sited since even if their building or unit seems safe, a fire or flood in a neighbouring unit could cause real problems.

Despite the emergence of the so-called 'electronic age, it is clear that there will be a need to store paper records for many years to come. In the light of this is it vital that they are treated as a key part of the business and every company's business continuity plan should take this into account.

Steve Holmes is a leading expert on records management and the general manager of DeepStore, a unique records storage facility located 150m below ground in Cheshire, UK. Please visit http://www.deepstore.com

Natural Disaster Preparedness - Make a Disaster Checklist to Help Protect Your Family

At best, you've got ample warning to get out of your house and out of town. At worst, you have minutes. What do you take? Where do you go? Your ability to make sound, safe decisions in this situation may be impaired. That's why you should prepare for disasters ahead of time. Create a disaster preparedness plan for your family to help you make it to safety. Use this disaster checklist as a guide.

1. Monitor the situation.

Advanced warning systems make it possible to prepare before a natural disaster strikes, so stay informed. The National Weather Service issues alerts across television stations, radio channels and even text message and email alerts. They also produce continuous Weather Radio broadcasts on a nationwide network that can only be picked up on special radios from the National Oceanic & Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). If you live in an area prone to severe weather, consider purchasing one of their receivers to hear these broadcasts.

2. Know where to go.

If you need to evacuate the house due to fire, gas leak or other home-based emergency, pick a spot down the street for all family members to meet. Discuss this often as part of your disaster planning so everyone is prepared. In the event of a regional disaster resulting from a tornado, flood or hurricane, make plans to travel at least an hour away. Major roads could be jammed with traffic or blocked by debris, so plan alternate routes. Also, remember not to drive into water on the road or get out of the vehicle amidst downed power lines.

3. Locate shut-off controls for gas, electric and water in your home.

As part of your disaster checklist, make sure adults and teens in your family know where the shut-off valves are located and how to operate them. Leave the necessary wrenches and tools in an easily accessible spot so this can be done quickly.

4. Take inventory of your belongings.

It may seem time-consuming, but it's a good idea to take an annual inventory of your valuable possessions. Create a written list or record the items with a photo or video camera. Take note of particularly expensive items like furniture and electronics, including serial numbers if possible. If your belongings are damaged or destroyed, you'll have a recent record to give to your insurance company.

5. Create emergency preparedness kits that include the basics.

There are entire websites dedicated to building comprehensive emergency kits, but start by including the basics:

Three-day supply of water for each person (one gallon per person per day)
Three-day supply of nonperishable food and a can opener
Radio, flashlight and batteries
First aid kit
Map
Cell phones and chargers
Prescription medications
Matches
Important documents like birth certificates, insurance and bank account information
Sleeping bags
Change of clothes6. Create a communication plan.

Have critical phone numbers stored in your cell phone, purse, briefcase, vehicle or other accessible location. While cell phone service may be unavailable, you can still access the phone book feature. Another good idea is to arrange for a family member or friend who lives out of town to act as a liaison in the event of disaster. It may be easier to reach them on a long-distance call rather than trying to place local calls on jammed signals. Everyone in your family, including children, should know how to reach this person so you can all relay messages and plans through him or her.

7. Include your pets in your disaster preparedness plan.

Animals, with the exception of service dogs, are not permitted in public shelters or places where food is served. Call kennels and shelters to see if they provide emergency care for pets. You can also contact the hotels where you plan to stay in the event of a disaster to see if they accept pets. Be sure to have identification and vaccination records easily accessible.

Another critical component of natural disaster preparedness is carrying the appropriate natural disaster insurance. Consult a company like Nationwide to get quotes and coverage information. In the event of disaster, it's important to know that you and your property are protected.

Kristin Armstrong is a Senior SEO Associate at Rosetta, the largest interactive agency in the U.S. Armstrong received an M.A. in Communication from The University of Dayton and has five years of experience in marketing.