Japan's three-headed earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster has taken a terrible toll in human lives, injuries, and the general well-being of the Japanese people. It will, of course, carry a financial cost, too. And now, the first financial estimates of the damage are rolling in. "If ever there was a comeback-kid sort of country, this is surely it," says E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. Here's a look at what it will take for Japan to recover, by the numbers:
$247 billion
Japanese Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano's estimate of what it will cost to rebuild Japan
$235 billion
World Bank estimate of what it will cost to rebuild Japan
$100 billion
Cost of rebuilding after the 1995 Kobe earthquake
$33 billion
Amount private insurers may have to pay for reconstruction, according to the World Bank
$12 billion
Government funds needed from the current Japanese budget, according to the World Bank. More would be needed later.
$1 trillion
Japan's stockpile of foreign reserves
10 percent
Amount Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index fell last week
390,000
Number of Japanese who remain homeless
9 million
Estimated number of Japanese left homeless at the end of World War II
9,080
Official death toll from the disasters
13,561
Number of Japanese still reported missing
$4.9 billion
Total claims for life insurance from the disasters
$339 billion
Amount of life insurance Japanese bought in 2009, representing 17 percent of world total
$1.2 billion
Amount insurer Swiss Reinsurance estimates it will lose from the disasters
544,000
Tons of seafood handled annually at Tokyo's Tsukiji central fish market, the world's biggest
$5.4 billion
Value of all that seafood
70 percent
Drop-in customers at Tsuikiji since the March 11 earthquake. The market closed the week after the disaster after restaurants, lacking customers, stopped buying fresh fish.
1 year
Minimum period of time for the fish market to recover, according to Tsukiji officials
Sources: GlobalPost, Washington Post, New York Times, Reuters (2), Bloomberg, Wall St. Journal, AP