The Prefectures affected the most are Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki, which represent about 7 per cent of Japan’s economy and house steel plants, oil refineries, nuclear power plants and factories manufacturing parts for cars and electronic goods.

Japan is in a state of panic as the situation in the Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to intensify.

As Japan grapples with a “nuclear emergency situation” a domestic debate has begun about whether a quake -prone country should rely on nuclear power.

The tsunami triggered by the quake swamped Sendai’s coast, picking up cars, ships and houses as it furiously surged three miles inland.

Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto is walking a tight rope with plunging popularity and growing demands for his resignation.

Gates has steered Japan and South Korea towards aligning their shared threat perceptions about North Korea and China.

North Korea’s offer of a dialogue is unlikely to elicit a positive response from South Korea which instead is militarily drawing closer to Japan to enhance deterrence.

The conflict over rare earths is not only a consequence of the monopoly amassed by China but is also reflective of the current flux in global power hierarchies.

Kan’s statement about sending the SDF to the Korean peninsula to rescue Japanese citizens and people of Japanese origin in the event of an emergency has raised the spectre of a possible revival of Japanese militarism.

Japan’s adoption of a new defence Guidelines to secure its southern “outlaying islands” closer to China suggests major shift in Japan’s Cold War security policy.