"Our country's financial standing is very different from that during the Gulf War," Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said yesterday on NHK television.
While a short war would limit the effect on Japan and its economy, companies are assessing the damage any spread in the conflict may cause, including a threat to the security of vital transport routes, among them the Suez Canal, the main artery for Japanese goods sailing to Europe.
"If both the Suez Canal or the Strait of Hormuz closed we would have to cancel some service or we would have to make some of the vessels deviate around Africa," said Ken Ogasawara, a spokesman for Nippon Yusen, Asia's largest shipping company. That additional 10 days of sailing time would cost the company Japanese Yen 40 billion a month, he said.
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