Nuclear Crisis Prompts Exodus of Executives From Tokyo

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18decamp.html?src=twrhp

The crisis at the nuclear power plant 140 miles north of here is leading to a steady but orderly departure of business executives from Tokyo. Foreigners in particular are among those leaving, as concerns grow about the possibility of a catastrophic release of radiation and governments urge their citizens to consider seeking safety elsewhere in Japan or overseas.

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And the oppressive atmosphere of fear has made concentrating on even routine tasks difficult. Meetings are being canceled, salesmen have given up visiting clients and stores are cutting back hours or closing entirely. Getting a table in even the most popular restaurants has suddenly become easier.

There are no open signs of panic on the streets of Tokyo. But executives from a growing number of banks, law firms, consultants and other businesses have started to rent space in Osaka or Fukuoka or other cities farther from the badly damaged nuclear reactors.

With thousands of Japanese also fleeing the quake-stricken areas in the north, travel on domestic airlines and bullet trains headed away from northern Japan has climbed, and rooms in hotels considered out of harm’s way are filling up.

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[Turbineguy]

1. I couldn't say

if the ship is sinking, but the rats seem to be leaving.

[shireen]

2. rich rats.

Most regular people have no choice but to stay.

Personally, i'm optimistic for Tokyo. Wind is not coming in their direction and radiation levels are still relatively low.

When this is all over, heads are definitely going to roll!!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. And the people stuck in the disaster zones around the nuke plants?

Tens of thousands of residents within a 20-mile radius surrounding the Fukushima plant were essentially trapped indoors for a second day on Wednesday, urged again by authorities to avoid going out unless it was an emergency. That posed a conundrum for those who have already been scrambling to try to obtain basic necessities; food, water and medicine, which have all been all hard to come by in the area devastated by Friday's magnitude-9 earthquake and the devastating tsunami that followed.

"Yesterday, we ate a bit of rice and one egg," said Yoshiko Tsuzuki, 55, a housewife standing beside her husband and 16-year old daughter in a queue outside a grocery store in Kashshimagai, outside the battered city of Sendai. "We're hungry. I want to buy water and anything to eat. We need everything."

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/03/15/1918250/japan-struggles-to-contain-nuclear.html#ixzz1GtOZ4fMZ

[kath]

4. Aw, they're just a bunch of proles. The rich execs are getting out, so it's all good.