Japan's economy minister, 72-year-old Kaoru Yosano, clad in his regulation ministerial 'Action Man' powder-blue boiler suit and heavy gumboots ready to spring into emergency mode, claimed last week that the damage to the country's economy from the earthquake and tsunami would be 'limited'.
He mused to the Financial Times that there could be a loss of perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of output, thus overall growth would be positive and 1.5 per cent in the 2011 fiscal year.
At the very least, Yosano was being economical with the economic truth. Indeed, it seemed a surreal comment when Japan is fighting to prevent a catastrophe leading to a nuclear meltdown. He failed to take account of the after-effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout, not to speak of the economic, social and political obstacles to putting the country on its feet again.
Even if you can forget the harrowing tales of life and death, the sight of half a million people shivering in temporary shelters, and another million households without power or running water, the triple disasters have shaken Japan to its core.
In the relative safety of Tokyo, 220 kilometres away from the epicentre, there are regular aftershocks making the population queasy, rolling power cuts that have shut much of Japan's manufacturing industry and reduced transport services by half. No wonder families nervous for their children's health and worrying about radiation have begun to leave Tokyo.
The discovery of unsafe levels of radiation in spinach and milk in the Fukushima area have not helped the nervous mood, even though the contamination was discovered before the food went on sale.