Abstract
According to BBC news on 15th march 2011, the radiation caused by the Japan explosion had risen at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. According to the government report, the quake-stricken plant had reached levels that were harmful.
The warning came after the same plant had been hard hit by the quake for the third time now. This third blast was the worst because for the first time it was thought to have damaged a reactors containment system. (Tabuchi, 2011, p.1-2).
At that particular time, there was a lot of worry of further leakages of radioactive from the nuclear plant and the experts extended the boundaries of the harmful zone to be within a range of thirty kilometers or eighteen miles and the people who were living within this limit were being advised to relocate or remain inside their houses.
In fact, the citizens in Koriyama were being observed if they had been exposed to any exposure of radiation (Sanger and Wald, 2011. p. 1-2)
Introduction
This explosion had great impacts on the exports of Japan as an economy. This has effects to both the global and national economies. This has led to a decline in the exports of Japan and a shortage in the countries that rely heavily on exports from Japan. This paper seeks to analyze the effects of this quake on the exports of Japan.
Other aspects included in this paper are the descriptive analysis of the Japan nuclear radiation and the relevant theories related to the nuclear radiation topic (Foster, 2011, p. 1). Because this is a very current phenomenon, most of the materials available are news documents. Most publishers have not yet released books and other scholarly documents on this happening.
Descriptive analysis
The magnitude of the Japan explosion was 9.0 but the government sources later on reported that the levels of the radiation at the main entrance of the plant had dropped tremendously. In less than four days, reactor two was the third to blast and reactor four shortly caught fire. Shortly before the blast reactor four had been closed because it was under maintenance.
At that point in time, reactors five and six were being observed keenly because sources said that they had also begun overheating. This was a hydrogen blast which caused the level of radiation to rise above the normal in the capital city of Japan. However, government officials claimed that this was not harmful to health. (Mcchinney and Sign, p. 123)
International business theory
A theory can be defined as set of principles or statements that are written in order to give explanation to a number of phenomena or facts, mostly those that have been tested severally or broadly accepted and can be used to foretell about a natural phenomena.
One of the relevant theories referred to in this phenomenon is the international business theory. International business is a wide terminology that explains all the transactions that are commercial and occur between two or more countries. These business undertakings could be either governmental, semi governmental or private.
With a lot of improvements that have taken place in the business industry, nations can now export their products to any republic globally. There are several theories that explain why a given nation should go to another nation to purchase given goods and services even if it produces the same products at their local market.
Some examples of international business theories include the absolute advantage theory, the comparative cost theory, opportunity cost theory and the vent for surplus theory. The absolute advantage theory was developed in the year 1977 by Adam Smith.
The theory is based on the fact that production of some goods and services are cheaper in some countries due to some natural factors like natural resources, cheap labor skilled labor and good farming land. Each country concentrates in production of goods and services it has absolute advantage over for export purposes.
Comparative cost theory was developed by David Ricardo. This theory explains that two nations can trade over a commodity if one of them has an advantage of manufacturing the good or service over another product in comparison of another republic’s ability of producing similar products.
Gottfried Herberler developed the opportunity cost theory in 1959. The value of alternatives that have to be forgone in order to attain a particular product is the opportunity cost. The opportunity cost theory suggests that a nation will produce and export the products that are more profitable to it as compared to others.
Lastly the vent for supply theory simply states that if a country produces more than the domestic demand, the extra produce has to be sold to the international market. If this is not done, part of the countries labor force will become redundant because their produce have no where to go. International business theories are therefore a special contributor to the whole aspect of international trade.
Impact of Japan nuclear radiation on exports
Impact on power generation
The explosion at the main power plant in Japan led to a serious shortage of power supply both to millions of house holds and manufacturers. In terms of exports, the worst heat sector is the automotive manufacturing industry. This lead to low production in automotives and other manufactured products, hence low supply to the market that imports machines from Japan.
This is mainly because a big proportion of the Japan economy heavily relies on nuclear power. Most of them site the heavy cost of electricity and also it’s not enough for the power intensive country. This continually leads to a reduction in production for export and hence in return reducing the export quantities.
Japans economy relies heavily on the manufacturing industry for sustenance. Export from this is heavily dependent on power. This has largely affected production in Japan and coupled with increasing oil prices, the products are becoming very expensive for the export market. Japan has to find a quick and durable solution for its export products if it has to maintain and even improve its place on the international market.
In mitigating the impact on power generation, the government and the industry have to work hand in hand to provide both long term and short term solutions. In the short time, the government has to import power in from other nations in order to ensure that production still goes on as usual.
This will maintain its place in the market lest it looses its customers due to shortage in the market. In the long term, the government should place measures in place to ensure that the nuclear firm works effectively with no further explosions.
Radiation testing on Japan’s food exports
Even though Japan is not heavily involved in food export, experts argue that air borne radio actives can get their way into the body through the skin, inhalation and food. If animals graze infected grass they too get infected and consequently, their products like milk and meat get infected too (Mc call, 2010, p. 210).
If these radiations also fall on plants, they also get infected and so they are not good for human consumption. This ends up being a threat to food supply of the affected economy to the rest of the world (AFP, 2011, p.1)
Japan’s export industry received negative publicity of their food industry due to this explosion. Many economies feared importing food products from Japan because of health issues. Countries like Singapore and Thailand were among the first to test Japan’s food products for radiation contamination. Such food products included fruits, sea foods, meat and vegetables (Willacy, 2011, p.1)
This effect on Japan’s food exports did not affect the economy of its country alone by reducing exports, but is also caused and continues to course great shortages of these products in countries that heavily rely on Japan for their supply.
The condition is further worsened by the thought that intake of radioactive iodine contaminated food leads to thyroid cancer. No body wants to be infected under all costs. In fact the radiations lead to a ban in shipment of some food products from Japan. The main consumers of Japan’s food products are China, US and Hong Kong.
Up to date, the food exports from Japan are still not being received well on the international market. Consumers still fear these products and this has reduced the earnings of Japan from its food export industry. It’s upon the work of the officials to convince the whole world that their products are now safe and that security measures have been put in place to avoid any contamination.
In handling this problem, the government should test its products to ensure that they have no elements of radiations before they are exported. They have to establish laboratories that ensure that their exports are safe for consumption.
It can be very bad for their customers to detect the radiations before Japan itself can do so. Once all the products prove to be harmless over a long period of time, then the government can have the breakthrough and confidence of selling on the international market.
Effect on the value of the yen
Due to the fear of consuming products from Japan, the effect has been seen and will continue being seen in reduced demand from the international market. This continuously leads to a flight in foreign capital and in turn it results in Japanese exports becoming cheaper and imports on the other hand becoming more expensive.
This has led to a state in which the value of the Japanese Yen in relation to the US dollar has been continuously depreciating. Japan is an energy intensive country and any negative effects in its energy sector, causes it to import more energy.
This continues to increase the value of imports and further increase inflation causing the yen to loose its value. The direct implication of this is that the country now needs more units of yen for its imports and receives fewer units of the same for its exports. This has direct negative effects on the foreign trade of Japan as a republic (Harukoya, 2011.p. 1)
The negative effect on the value of the yen is mainly caused by fall in demand and hence the government and all the affected industries have to lay strategies of inducing demand on the international market by coming up with promotion programs that are geared towards restoring the confidence of Japan’s products on the international market.
Impact on manufactured products
Japan heavily relies on the export of second hand and new automobiles for their economic sustainability. The fear that radiations can penetrate the body through the skin has affected this export business. It is widely believed that automobiles from Japan are contaminated and purchasing them is harmful.
This is a double tragedy because as Japan would be working towards stabilizing its power supply, it would heavily rely on products that are ready for export. However, these products have no place in the market because of fear.
The fact that radiation can be inhaled or penetrate through the skin puts Japan’s export industry between a rock and a very hard surface. It may surely take decades for the international community to build confidence in Japan’s products.
The only way to handle this challenge is for the manufacturers, the government and other stake holders restoring the confidence of the international market by testing their exports to ensure that they are harmless and then putting in place suitable programs for marketing their products on the international market.
Effect on flight trips
Flying of planes in and out of a country is a very good indicator of a successful foreign exchange sector. This is because, foreigners come in form of investors and tourists hence injecting foreign investment into the country. Due to the fear of radioactive contaminants, many visitors have shied from visiting Japan.
The fear of being infected has made Japan loose a lot on their foreign income in form from visitors. The fact that Japan has to continue spending more and more on exports yet receiving lesser in form of imports places the economy in a bad state (Kobata, 2011, p. 1-2).
The only way for checking out on this is by the ministry in charge of tourism, trade and other stake holders holding very serious campaigns of assuring the foreigners that the affected areas are very safe for human habitation. In case there are any traces of radiation effects still in the air, then the government should look for experts globally to neutralize the concentration of the radiation within the environment.
Damages on the surrounding firms
Due to the explosion, several manufacturing and business enterprises were also hard hit by the explosion. This caused several damages to the manufacturers and other businesses and as a result, it led to low production of goods and services meant for both the local and international markets.
This in itself enhanced the problem of exports because even though Japan’s products were receiving negative publicity, the level of production also fell tremendously.
There is only one way to help in solving this problem, the way out is for the affected firms to squeeze for some funds in their budget, with the sole reason of rebuilding the destroyed amenities. This is an expensive unplanned for undertaking but it has to be carried out in order to avoid shortages in the market.
Effects on employment
This problem of damages to the surrounding led to many manufacturing firms and businesses to reducing their number of staff until the required renovations had been carried out. The problem of an abrupt drop in employment has negative effects to the exports of a country and the economy at large. This is mainly because it is this source of labor that produces for export purposes.
Once the labor force is reduced drastically, it has a direct effect of reduced production. Such a reduction in production does not only affect goods and services for the local market but it also affects the international market at large (Arthur, 2011, p.1)
The effects on employment can be sorted by the government putting in place measures that ensure that the production process is restored and the manufactured products are marketed for properly on the market. This includes all the above discussed recommendations of rebuilding any destroyed infrastructure and product promotion to ensure that customer confidence is gained.
Conclusion
From this paper, it has come out evidently that the event of the nuclear radiation that was largely covered on both the local and international media has had great negative effects on its economy. The effects have been felt in the main sectors of the economy not leaving behind the export sector.
It appears that any single effect of this event has had a direct impact on the exports of Japan. One thing to note is that these effects are still being felt and it may take Japan some time before going back to normal. The greatest challenge Japan has is that of convincing the whole world that their products are now safe, especially after the media widely covered topics on the potential effects of radiation.
Not accusing the media at all, but to a great extent, it contributed to the negative publicity of Japan’s export products (Gyogy 1980, p. 27). Attempts by the government of Japan to re-assure the international community that its products and environment are now safe have not yet yielded much fruits.
One this to not is that by the fact that the exports of Japan are affected, then this does not only affect the economy of Japan, but it also affects the economy of other countries. Economists argue that these effects may persist for some time.
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