It looks like this thread is turning into a tragedy of its own...
Of course, boiling down someone else's grievous misfortune into a narrow perspective of how it will effect their productivity can seem insensitive and impersonal, but that's just life. Heck, banks and trading houses have analysts whose job it is to do this all day long.
The most widespread problem in Japan right now is power distribution; TEPCO, the largest power producer in Japan, was performing 3 hour rolling blackouts over large areas of Japan yesterday. Other than that, some trains are still not running, some highways and roads are closed indefinitely, and NRT had to cancel a lot of flights, so there will be a lot of delays in moving people and products.
According to CNN analysts, the area hit hardest by the tsunamis, Sendai, makes up only 1.7% of Japan's GDP, so if you like numbers, you can start there as a minimum. If power and transportation issues are not resolved quickly for the rest of Japan, the loss will be much greater and farther reaching.
As far as EK goes, the only delays I'm seeing are in transport of Made in Japan products that normally go out of Narita; Topres and accessories that are currently on backorder will be delayed a few days, a week, who knows. Stuff coming out of TW and Korea is not affected as long any Japanese based management is able to work; so far everything is OK.
