Toyota has now resumed car production at all of its plants in Japan for the first time since last month's earthquake and tsunami. However, the car manufacturer said that production would be half of its normal level because of parts shortages.

Japanese voters are critical of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of the crisis at a crippled nuclear plant and support raising taxes to finance rebuilding plans after last month's earthquake and tsunami, surveys show.

Last fall, industry analysts predicted there would be an oversupply of manufacturing capacity due to a market correction following the strong revenue posted in 2010, but following the earthquake, tsunami, and now nuclear crisis in Japan, the landscape looks different.

Japanese authorities have raised the severity rating of their nuclear crisis to the highest level, seven. The decision reflects the total release of radiation at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which is ongoing, rather than a sudden deterioration.

An aftershock that shook Japan's northeast region temporarily shut down power supply and makeshift cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant Monday, highlighting the vulnerability of the crippled facility a month after a massive earthquake triggered the nation's worst nuclear-power crisis.

Japan has announced that it is to extend the evacuation zone around a crippled nuclear plant, as the country held a silence to mark one month since the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The zone will encompass areas where there is a radiation risk beyond the existing 20-km (12-mile) radius.

Toyota announced they would suspend production for five days and slow production over the "next few weeks," because of shortfall in parts availability. Honda meanwhile said it would extend a production slowdown for a week.

Freescale Semiconductor won't reopen a seriously damaged chip factory in Sendai, northern Japan, the company said on April 6. The plant had been due to close at the end of 2011.

Consumer electronics giant Sony, chipmakers Elpida Memory and Renesas, and electronics firms Panasonic and Toshiba have all said that production at some plants in northern Japan had been halted again due to power cuts triggered by a major aftershock that shook the region on April 7.

A powerful aftershock has struck northeast Japan, a month after a violent quake led to a devastating tsunami.

South Korea's LG Chem on April 6 completed what it described as the world's largest battery plant for electric cars and vowed to become a major producer by 2015. The company said the factory in Ochang, south of Seoul, has enough capacity to produce lithium-ion batteries for 100,000 of the green autos a year.

TowerJazz has signed a non-binding term sheet contemplating its purchase of Micron Technology's fabrication facility in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo, Japan. The proposed purchase would nearly double TowerJazz's current internal manufacturing capacity, increasing production by 60,000 wafers per month.

Production was suspended at the plant in Iwate Prefecture after suffering damage in the March 11 earthquake. The plant makes microcontrollers and large scale integration chips.

Japanese manufacturing activity sank to a two-year low in March 2011, underlining the impact of the earthquake and tsunami on economic activity in the country.

Hynix CEO OC Kwon said that Hynix had around 45 days of wafer inventory and was reassured by quake-hit Japanese raw materials firms that there wouldn't be any major disruptions in wafer supplies.

Firms across the world fear shortages of parts that used to be made in the Japanese factories now shuttered because of power and water shortages, or because of road and port closures, following the quake and the floods. And carmakers, whose products often contain some 20,000 individual parts, are expected to be among those worst hit.

Japan's unemployment rate fell to a two-year low in February 2011, government data showed. But economists said the rate may rise in the coming months as the devastating earthquake and subsequent power shortages could keep companies from boosting staff.

The death toll from Japan's 11 March earthquake and tsunami has passed 10,000, police say. More than 17,440 people are listed as missing, and 2,775 as injured.

The effects of the earthquake and tsunami have thrown a shadow over Japan's exports. Exports rose 9% in February 2011 from a year earlier, but those figures don't reflect the impact from the earthquake which hit on March 11.

Toyota Motors, the word's biggest carmaker, will slow production at some of its factories in North America due to a shortage of parts. Toyota has already halted production at all of its 12 assembly plants in Japan until 26 March.

Renesas Electronics has resumed operations at the factory sites in Aomori and Yamagata prefectures, northern Japan. The facilities were shut down following a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11.

Micron Technology is trying to secure its supply of crucial silicon wafers following Japan's devastating earthquake and said it was too soon to gauge the disaster's impact on its business.

President Ma Ying-jeou and more than 300 entertainers raised NT$800 million (US$26.7 million) in a four-hour fundraiser broadcast live on local channels late Friday, said co-organiser Taiwan Red Cross. Another fundraiser co-sponsored by World Vision Taiwan also saw hundreds of local celebrities join hands to raise NT$114 million for Japan quake relief.

Emergency crews at Japan's earthquake-hit nuclear plant in Fukushima prevented the radiological crisis from spinning further out of control on Friday (Mar. 18), but their efforts appeared to be too late to prevent contamination of inhabited areas around the site.

General Motors has announced plans to temporarily idle its pick-up truck plant in Louisiana due to a parts shortage stemming from the crisis in Japan.

Earlier this week, the yen hit its highest level since World War II against the US dollar, adding to fears over Japan's recovery. The yen weakened to 81.81 against the US dollar after news of the plan.

Analysts at Barclays and UBS had speculated that shutdowns at Mitsubishi Gas would deprive some chipmakers of a chemical resin used to package their products, causing supply disruptions.

The crisis in Japan has revived anti-nuclear passions worldwide, putting governments on the defensive and undermining the nuclear power industry's recent renaissance as the clean energy of the future.

With so many fake information and inaccurate reporting on the nuclear crisis, here is a good article on what is really going on.

Plans by Japan's largest electric utility to impose rolling blackouts across the earthquake-ravaged country could sharply curtail Japan's economic growth and disrupt global commerce.

A spike in radiation levels at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has forced workers to suspend their operation, a government spokesman says.

March quarter sales are expected to be flat to up 5% sequentially, consistent with the company's previous guidance. Xilinx said the guidance assumes that its shipments to customers in Japan are not affected by the recent events there.

Toshiba said it will cooperate with Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) request to cut electricity consumption by operating only those of its businesses related to provision of essential services required for social and economic activities.

Shares and other risky assets from the Australian dollar to commodities such as copper and oil slumped on Tuesday while safe-haven assets like US Treasuries rallied as Japan's nuclear crisis worsened.

The amount of loss and effects on profits as a result of the earthquake are currently unknown. Fujitsu will promptly make an announcement should these effects be significant.

Renesas Electronics has confirmed that seven out of 22 of its factories in Japan has temporarily shut down production. Among these factories, Renesas Yamagata Semiconductor Tsuruoka Factory is currently beginning its startup procedures to restart its manufacturing.