The Effects on China of the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

At 1:46pm on March 11th, Beijing time, there was a class 9 earthquake that hit near Honshu island of Japan. The earthquake as well as tsunami and the fire at a nuclear power station that followed not only brought fatal effects to Japan, but also greatly affected China as its close neighbor. However, the effects here have mainly been focused on the economy and day-to-day life:

The Effects on the Chinese Economy

GDP

According to “经济之声报” or “The Sound of Economics Report,” how the earthquake has affected the economy of China is the focus of economists from all political inclinations. In a recent forum titled “China and The World Economy” hosted by Tsinghua University, in Beijing on March 20th, some experts estimated that the Japanese earthquake may cause the GDP of China to decrease by as much as 0.5% and capital markets would experience a certain degree of turmoil for a period. The effects to China would be greater if Japan recovered slowly after the earthquake; the assumed point of risk being over 1 month.

Digital and Electronic Products Field

With Japan’s position in the digital storage device and high-end camera market, there has been an obvious price increase in these areas. For example, Kingston SD cards with the capacity of 4G and 8G have risen by RMB 10 and RMB 20, reaching RMB 55 and RMB 95 respectively. In addition, for USB flash disks, 4G and 8G have risen to RMB 53 and RMB 90, increases of over 20%. Similarly, the price for Japanese branded cameras have also experienced a rise. Take the Canon 550D for example. In Zhongguancun, a district in Beijing known for its electronics suppliers, the price was RMB 4980 before the earthquake, now it has risen to between RMB 5120 and RMB 5200.

Motor Vehicle Industry

The joint venture motor vehicle enterprises between China and Japan have suffered different kinds of effects since the earthquake. Because the stock of installation kits is limited and can only meet short-term supply demands, many enterprises have found it hard to maintain their production lines, including major players such as Honda, Toyota and Nissan.

IT field

Chinese IT enterprises are suffering the effects brought to the industry by the earthquake. The CEO of Lenovo Group, which is the #4 PC manufacturer worldwide, said this earthquake will have effects on the products distribution and the Japanese PC markets. At the same time, the earthquake will affect the material and battery supply of Lenovo. And of course, the sales of Lenovo in the Japanese market will suffer, but the degree to which this will be is still to be determined.

In actuality, the IT supply chain crisis triggered by the earthquake has only been slowly showing signs. Japan is a main supplier of global batteries and chip technology, and this earthquake has caused many factories to close down. The earthquake also brought a great deal of damage to the transportation infrastructure, industry based infrastructure, and the power supply from water, power and gas. This will mean long term effects on the chip industry as well electronic components and liquid crystal display panel, and these should not be ignored.

The Effects on Chinese Life

Chinese Tourism

Since the earthquake, tourism to Japan has almost completely stopped. All group tours scheduled in March and April are applying for a return of deposits or requests for postponement, bringing large losses to some travel agencies.

Cosmetics

Interestingly, even the cosmetics industry has been hit by the tragedy in Japan. Some consumers buying Japanese cosmetics from online Chinese retailer, Taobao, have noticed heavy increases in prices, forcing some to consider changing brands, in an industry that relies heavily on brand loyalty.

Baby Formula and Powdered Milk

After experiencing a “melamine” crisis, the imported powered milk has been the preferred choice of many young parents. Because of its reliable quality and nice taste, many parents choose Japanese powered milk. However, after the earthquake, not only is it harder to buy, but many are discovering that the product they went through so much efforts to buy are actually fake, causing many to change brands.

Japanese Cuisine

The suppliers for many Japanese restaurants have also experienced drastic changes to their operations. Even the dishes still available have had major raises in the price. The reasons are that the raw materials and condiments are all imported from Japan, from which the supply has obviously been affected

Chinese Salt Rush

Everyone in China is well aware of the short lived “Chinese Salt Rush” in the supermarket that occurred in the end of March. Rumor of nuclear leaks after the earthquake into the water supply, caused panic among Chinese people that the salt was polluted, resulting in much of the population to stock up on salt. This panic was largely sparked by a small number of Weibo posts, China’s major micro-blogging service. This momentary crisis has made it clear that the situation in Japan has made much of the Chinese population extremely wary.

More and more, the world has been described as a “global village.” Although the earthquake is technically only a regional disaster, the Japanese economy has been linked with the world, including China, particularly as a major regional trading partner. With recent the improvements to lives of the Chinese people, there is a feeling that their daily life is more and more related to the world. After the earthquake, the Japanese economy will suffer a major blow in the midst of a global recovery and a lingering economic stagnation for Japan. To ensure the well-being of our common global village, China should take an active part in the earthquake reconstruction efforts of Japan, for both the betterment of nation of Japan as well as for the

北京时间3月11日13点46分，日本本州岛附近海域发生里氏9.0级地震，震中位于宫城县以东太平洋海域，日本大地震及其后的海啸、核电站火情等一系列不仅给日本造成了毁灭性的影响，而且对其近邻——中国也造成了很大的影响。

这些影响主要体现在经济和生活等多方面。

日本地震或致中国GDP下降0.5%

据经济之声报道，日本强震对中国经济的影响究竟会有多大，一直是各方经济学家高度关注的焦点。20日举行的清华大学中国与世界经济论坛上，有专家认为，日本地震可能会降低中国GDP增幅0.5个百分点，资本市场短期会有一定程度的动荡，如果日本灾后生产恢复得慢，超过1个月，对中国的影响要更大。

部分数码产品涨幅20％左右，

受地震影响，目前数码存储设备（U盘、SD卡、TF卡）和日本原装高端相机及镜头价格涨幅明显。

金士顿4G和8G的SD卡分别上涨10元和20元，已经卖到55元和95元；4G和8G的U盘价格也分别涨到53元和90元，上涨幅度均在两成多。”店主称，主要是上游经销商抬起价格，自己只是    随行就市。

Guanyu 日本品牌相机价格也有所上涨。以佳能550D为例，

中关村的报价已从震前的4980元上涨到5120元至5200元之间。

中日合资车企生产或受影响较大

与此同时，中日合资车企也受到不同程度影响，生产难以保障。生产变速箱等核心部件的广东南海本田汽车零部件制造有限公司有关负责人表示，工厂在3月前生产还能开展，但4月之后能否维持还有待观察。广汽本田、广汽丰田两大企业有关负责人表示，根据

零配件库存状况，企业能确保两周生产正常进行，此后生产是否会受影响，还在评估之中。东风日产则称，目前企业正在加紧进行评估，只能确保“近期生产”不受影响，但长期还有待观察。

日本地震的中国ＩＴ冲击波

中国ＩＴ产业链上的企业，正在慢慢体味“日本大地震”给整个产业生态带来的影响。

全球第四大个人电脑（ＰＣ）生产商联想集团ＣＥＯ杨元庆在震后表示，日本地震将会对产品配送和日本ＰＣ市场构成影响，公司的供货、电池等零部件供应，以及公司在日本市场的销售都受到牵连，但具体程度在评估之中。

同样，惠普公司也正在全面评估日本地震给其ＩＴ产业链带来的影响。

事实上，日本地震引发的ＩＴ全球供应链危机正在显现。

由于日本是全球电池和芯片的主要供应商，这次地震导致部分工厂关闭，同时由于地震对交通运输等工业基础设施和水电煤气等   能源供给造成了巨大破坏，因此此次日本地震对半导体芯片、电子元器件和液晶面板行业的长期影响不容忽视。

对旅游业来说，日本地震发生后，赴日旅游已经完全暂停，而且预定3、4月的团队旅游也都在办退费团或延期，给部分旅行社造成了重创。

“面子”问题。

一些经常在淘宝网上买日本化妆品的消费者反映，地震以后，卖家

纷纷涨价，他们在考虑是不是要换掉这个牌子。

婴儿奶粉。

在中国遭遇“三聚氰胺”危机之后，进口奶粉一直是很多年轻父母的选择。由于质量可靠、口味适合，很多父母都选择日本奶粉。但地震之后，日本奶粉很难买到，而且费劲买到的奶粉竟然出现了假货。现在众多父母都开始转向其他品牌的奶粉了。

日式菜品

不光是婴儿奶粉，地震后，很多日式餐厅的菜品都暂停供应，供应的一些菜式甚至身价大涨。原来是因为食材和调味品都从日本进口，现在已经供应不上了。

疯狂抢盐

大家一定都记得前一段时间发生的超市疯狂抢购食盐的风波。由于日本地震导致核泄漏，污染海水，中国老百姓担心食盐受污染，纷纷

囤积食盐。显而易见，地震给老百姓造成了多大的恐慌。

专家说，世界已经成为一个地球村，虽然日本地震是一种局部地区的灾难，但是日本的经济已经和包括中国在内的世界连接在一起，中国百姓生活水平的提高也使得他们感受到日常生活的更多因素与世界相关。受地震影响，年内日本经济将受到冲击，建议中国企业应积极参加日本震后重建，开拓日本市场，推动本国产业升级。