Back in Japan

In the weeks after the threefold disaster in Japan, many car manufacturers and automotive suppliers had to cut back their production. Yesterday, the 18th of April, Mitsubishi’s plants in the stricken country took up production again.

The Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors assumes that the spare parts supply situation is going to ease up again. Till end of April, the company plans to produce 90% of the forecasted cars. Projections for the full month of April indicate 60% of the original planning.
During the »golden week«, a series of Japanese holidays in the first week of May, Mitsubishi is going to assess the spare part supply situation and decide on the future production planning in its three domestic plants.

(Winter's cityside crystal bits of snowflakes/
all around my head and in the wind /
I had no illusions that I'd ever find /
a glimpse of summer's heatwaves in your eyes.
You did what you did to me now it's history I see /
here's my comeback on the road again ... 
Alphaville, »Big in Japan«)

According to the management, production plants outside Japan were only partially struck by supply bottlenecks. They claim that ramifications on car production were negligible as their prognoses show normal production.
If that is so, there remains the question why Mitsubishi was so intent on ramping up production so quickly despite all the lingering problems like power shortages, aftershocks and the (admittedly rather stupid, even for a nuclear power sceptic like me) fear of contaminated electronic components in many western countries. But who knows, maybe it’s about company and patriotic morale…