Supply chain lessons from the catastrophic natural disaster in Japan

On March 11, 2011, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck the northeast coast of Japan. Even more devastating was the tsunami that followed the earthquake. Thousands of homes were destroyed, and numerous forms of social infrastructure, such as roads and dams, were destroyed. The death toll exceeded 86,000, more than 13,000 were listed as missing, and 550,000 people had to evacuate the region. The subsequent nuclear meltdown in Fukushima was another calamity that shook the nation and made the people and the economy suffer further. Together, the massive earthquake in Japan and the tsunami that followed made up one of the most costly calamities caused by a natural disaster in modern history, and The World Bank estimated that the disaster left Japan with damages totaling about $235 billion. The magnitude of these damages is quite obvious in comparison with other recent disasters. For instance, the U.S. National Hurricane Business Horizons (2013) 56, 75—85