I'm wondering the same thing. One estimate puts the number of houses destroyed at around 100k (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/

I'm wondering the same thing. One estimate puts the number of houses destroyed at around 100k (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asia-paci...). Car ownership is around 1 car for every two people in Japan, no doubt more in rural areas. So 100,000 destroyed houses might mean 80k to 140k flooded cars. I'd guess that more than 50k extra cars are going to need to be produced in Japan to replace those that have been lost (which, though a relatively small proportion of the probably 1,000,000 cars made in Japan yearly, is nonetheless significant). Another sad fact of this disaster is that it disproportionately affected the retired -- this too may well have consequences economically. Economics is in part about people having productive stuff to do. If there was a work shortage in Japan before, I doubt there is now.