Japan Earthquake and Tsunami's

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Israel fears sushi shortage after quake
Situation in Japan may affect regular supply of ingredients for one of Israelis' favorite dishes
Meirav Crystal
2011-03-15
ynetnews.com

While Japan continues to deal with the aftermath of last Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami, and has yet to recover from one of the greatest disasters in its history, Israelis fear a shortage in the ingredients of one of their favorite dishes: Sushi. Many of sushi's basic components come from Japan or are imported through the battered countries. Will Israelis soon suffer from a shortage of the beloved rolls' necessary ingredients?

"There may be a shortage of sushi components, but we are still studying the situation," says Dudi Afriat of the Rakuto Kasei company, which imports the Kikkoman soy sauce, as well as seaweeds, wasabi, rice and other necessary ingredients for sushi rolls. Rakuto Kasei is the main supplier of raw materials for sushi to all restaurants in Israel, and markets products to supermarkets as well.

"We'll be wiser once the situation in Japan stabilizes and the reconstruction begins," he explains. "I assume we'll know if there is going to be a shortage in the coming week. The main fear is of a shortage of the Kikkoman soy sauce. One Kikkoman factory in Japan was damaged and there have been delays in the supply, but we hope it won't stop the regular chain of supply." Kikkoman has five factories around the world – in the United States, Hong Kong, Holland, Singapore and Japan. "Most of the containers arrive in Israel from the US, but the entire management is in Japan," Afriat explains.

"At the moment, it's very difficult communicating with them. There are a lot of disruptions. Yesterday I spoke with our contact in Japan, and he said it took him 10 hours to get to the office from home. So at the moment the situation is unclear, and it all depends on the Japanese. I trust them, because they love the soy sauce more than we do. My only fear is that they'll have to import Kikkoman from the US, and that will affect the imports to Israel."

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Will nobody think of the victims in this - the middle-class Israelis who have to forego their snacks...

On a similar note, last night I was watching the CBS evening news from America and they did a whole bit about how the radiation leaks in Japan aren't so bad really - because they don't think it will reach the US. Not a word about the people in Japan.

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[pirtybirdy]

Wow! Ya know, I was wondering, would one get out of the car after that, or stay in the car for fear of another wave? it seems the car was floating okay, and it's better to float than to drown in a massive wave.

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Show me a hero who can fight that...

[pirtybirdy]

Holy Christ on a bike! That was incredible! It just completely wiped out the town, and even with that warning, there wasn't shit that anyone could have done. There wasn't enough time to escape.

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what got me was the way it kind of built up slowly - not looking too dangerous...

[pirtybirdy]

Exactly, nice an slow, just seeping in, and by the end, it was raging and several floors high! All in a matter of 5 minutes, which is approximately how long the footage was. It's truly incredible.