Australian and international law firms are assessing the situation in Japan following an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Sendai 300km north of Tokyo on Friday afternoon. Blake Dawson has its own office in Tokyo, with five staff on the ground. At the time to earthquake hit there were an additional five staff from Australia visiting, including head of North Asia operations Ian Williams.
 
Despite the situation, Williams said he and his colleagues remained calm when the earthquake hit. The visiting Australians were due to leave Japan on Friday evening, but all flights were cancelled. They instead left Saturday evening, after an eight hour trip by train to the airport. “We are continuing to monitor what is happening with regards to the nuclear reactor,” Williams told ALB.
 
Freehills has one secondee in Tokyo at the moment, but they have been contacted and are safe. Allens Arthur Robinson normally has a secondee at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu (NO&T) in Japan, but by chance they were in Australia when the earthquake hit.  “We're in touch with NO&T and will offer any practical assistance that we can,” said Chris Fogarty, director of corporate affairs at Allens. “We're reviewing the situation in regards to other staff who regularly travel to Japan,” he added.

Professor Andrew O'Neil, director of the Griffith Asia Institute at Griffith University, says the disaster in Japan poses significant threats to the long term viability of Japan’s role in Asia. “The massive human and economic costs to Japan resulting from the earthquake and tsunami damage will worsen an already precarious situation for state and society… this will have serious implications for Australia, a country that still relies on the Japanese market for the export of a large portion of its resources base,” he said.
 
Williams said his firm had been inundated by emails from clients, but no clients had been directly affected by the tsunami or quake. “There will be some sector specific issues going forward. Japan is the world’s third biggest economy. Anything that affects growth and investment will have an impact elsewhere,” he said.

Related stories:

No more office towers, vows Christchurch firm 28 February 2011