Mental earthquakes

Forget the financial cost, the psychological impact of the disasters that have hit Japan will be the hardest thing to deal with, writes Bill Emmott

ONE of the first phrases foreigners pick up when they live in Japan is ganbatte kudasai, because it is so commonly used.

Japanese say it in parting, at moments when Westerners might say “take care”, but the meaning is different. Translated fairly literally, it means “please endure it”. No one can doubt the Japanese capacity for endurance, the country’s almost spiritual sense of stoicism, has just had its greatest test since wartime defeat and destruction in 1945.