Powerful Quake Deals Blow to Biz Operations in Hokkaido

Sapporo, Sept. 6 (Jiji Press)--A powerful earthquake that rocked Hokkaido in the small hours of Thursday and a subsequent major electricity outage greatly hampered business operations in the northernmost Japan prefecture. Asahi Breweries Ltd. suspended operation at its plant in Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital, and Kirin Brewery Co. at its plant in Chitose, with a restart nowhere in sight for either plant. Sapporo Breweries Ltd. instructed workers at its plant in Eniwa to stay home. Kyocera Corp.'s factory in Kitami, located far from the seismic center of the quake, suffered no damage to equipment. But the technology firm decided to shut the plant as it was not sure how long the electricity outage will last. Worker safety was also a matter of concern. Alcoholic beverage maker Godo Shusei Co. said it cannot restart production at its Tomakomai plant until power supply is restored. Toyota Motor Hokkaido Inc. halted auto parts output. Nippon Paper Industries Co. and Oji Paper Co. suspended plant operations as they found it impossible to turn on in-house power generators due to the blackout. As their plants produce more than 40 pct of newsprint used in Japan, the two companies hope to avoid an impact on the publication of newspapers for the time being by using stocks. Oji Paper officials said it has a week's worth of stocks. Data centers, which store huge amounts of computer information, cannot operate even for a moment without electricity. Electronics makers NEC Corp. <6701> and Fujitsu Ltd. maintained power for their data centers by switching to in-house electricity generation systems. The two companies are hurrying to procure additional fuel to power the systems as they only have oil to last 72 hours. Most of convenience stores and supermarkets lost electricity and some of them shuttered. But Aeon Co. continued food and beverage sales using some of its supermarket outlets. Major department stores in Sapporo and other cities were closed as well. In the transport industry, parcel delivery firms Yamato Transport Co. and Sagawa Express Co. suspended accepting parcels across Hokkaido. Train services by Japan Freight Railway Co. were paralyzed, raising concerns that farmers in the northern island of the country will become unable to ship their products to major consumer markets in the Honshu main island in this harvest season. END