Staffan Carle comments

Also, uranium is running out, just like oil and cole etc, as it says in the quotation below. Beside alternative energy resources reasonable consumtion is needed, or a way to start wanting that, since now most people still want more rather than less. Wanting less is perhaps not in man's nature, but there must be some way around that, in order not to reach accute shortages of resources to live from and the suffering it would bring.

“…there are currently 440 operating nuclear reactors with a further 65 under construction. Operating nuclear reactors require the equivalent of about 68 000 tons of natural uranium ore every year. ... Given that one-third of the ‘known’ deposits are only an estimate, a more accurate interpretation would be that perhaps enough uranium exists to operate the existing nuclear power plants for about 70 years."

(http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001938/193840e.pdf)

TSRnow Agree with you, it's hard to find any positive effects of the disaster, business-wise definetely so. Despite that, let's just hyptothetically suggest that they exist. Such effects might be invisible to the eye so far, but I think it's likely, as these disasters and blows keep repeating themselves to a greater rate all the time, that there will be more tangible positve effects also, maybe even in business in the end.

To people hit by blows like this I guess the notion of business in itself decreases in significance comparing to before. When something bad happens a human tends to shift her focus from things that before seemed significant, to more basic needs like closeness to friends and family etc. What if peoples values would really change from money-loving to people-loving? This would certainly change business and finance, say from regarding only profit for oneself to also regarding others' profit (economic or not). I know, we're not there. Utopic? As an effect of accumulated blows, it might be were we are heading. I certainly hope so.

TSRnow: You're right business is business. Only one purpose with that, pretty one sided. Wealth above all seems to be the rule in the world today. This disaster will not change this rule, neither for Toyota or anyone else. But blows like this one together with financial crisis and other calamites increasing constantly in the world will certainly have some kind of effect other than making life just a little bit harder for the big money makers. Kizuna, connection, may seem like just another slogan or even a sign of weakness, but there's surely more to it than that. Problems make people look for a solution, the tsunami no exception. Who knows where to look? Well, I don't know, but it seems to me that one thing that has become evident after the disaster is the degree to what the whole world is connected. It's not just that it has made Toyota reflect upon how they are connected to their 2nd, 3rd or 4th tier suppliers, but it seems to work on multiple levels. The feeling of connectedness between people after the the quake (that gave rise to the Kizuna as the word of the year) is not something concrete, but it's certainly evident.