And the pounding will get worse, says Kunihiko Shiohara, a car analyst at Goldman Sachs.

ECONOMIST: Mitsubishi and Mazda struggle, despite western partners

"This is the result of the failure of the Japanese government to resolve a domestic issue as it had promised to do, " said Kunihiko Miyake, a former foreign ministry official who is now a research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies.

WSJ: U.S., Japan Scale Back Plan to Move Base

"We have reached the evaluation that the D-1 area of crushed rock in the premises of the Tsuruga power plant needs to be taken into consideration from the perspective of quake-resistant design, " Kunihiko Shimazaki, deputy chairman of the authority, told reporters during a news conference following a panel meeting where the report was approved.

WSJ: Panel: Active Fault Runs Beneath Japan Reactor