Originally Posted by xmatt

I doubt it will have a major impact on product plans. The devastation -- as horrific as it is -- is almost entirely in the north of the country, where there is comparatively little industrial production. All of the auto companies are based near Tokyo or southward. There is Honda in Tochigi somewhat to the north of Tokyo, where they've lost power, but I think that's about as bad as it was. I was in Tokyo during the earthquake (just managed to get out yesterday), and really the extent of the impact there is disruption of transportation infrastructure, which they'll recover from quickly. On top of that, I was absolutely stunned with how matter-of-fact the Japanese people were during all that's happened. In the cities that weren't directly hit by the brunt of the earthquake or tsunamis, nobody was freaking out if wasn't a direct reason to; people just want to get back to business and their lives.

Originally Posted by CosmosMpower

So that's why you were missing at the auto-x this weekend. Glad to hear you made it out ok.

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

There is chatter in the seismological community about this being a precursor to an 8.0 quake near Tokyo. There may be a second shoe to drop.

Originally Posted by SheDrivesIt

I would imagine after a shift of the size they just experienced, there will be a lot of quakes all over the area for a while. Actually, small quakes are good. They relieve stresses that otherwise turn into large earthquakes. The tectonic plates are moving, that is inevitable.