This paper quantifies and analyzes the economic impact of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami on the Japanese electricity industry using alternative event study methodology. The data set includes daily stock prices of 11 publicly traded electricity companies. This paper investigates the changes in systematic risk, abnormal returns (ARs), and cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) before and after the natural disaster. In addition, I compare the movement of the stock price in the electricity industry with other indices in Japan to investigate the aggregate level impact on the Japanese economy. By examining the economic impact of the earthquake, this paper provides a visual and a numerical representation of the change in investors’ views on the electricity industry. The results showed no statistically significant changes in ARs in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. On the other hand, statistically significant changes in CARs were found for all 11 electricity companies over an extended period following the disaster. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant increase in systematic risk, especially in the nuclear-committed firms. Although the electricity industry was negatively affected, daily stock prices and CARs show that other industries were not as severely affected. These results provide insight to the global economic and the political implication of the disaster.

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This thesis examines the news coverage of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that devastated the country of Japan in March 2011 from a comparative standpoint. Drawing on the key concepts in the theory of social constructionism and frame analysis, the series of studies in this thesis comparatively examines how cultures and value systems factored into the process of news production, dissemination and consumption when it comes to the news stories on what the Japanese government officially named the Great East Japan Earthquake. The first section looks at how Japan and its people were portrayed amid disaster relief efforts and analyzes how culture itself has become the topic of discussion and part of reality construction. The second section, on frame analysis, focuses on the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, often called the Fukushima 50 by the Western media, and examines the cultural characteristics that contributed to the observable discrepancies in the ways they were represented by the Japanese media and their Western counterparts. The third study aims to shed light on the environment surrounding today’s foreign correspondents and international news reporting in the context of Japan, investigating what factors influence the ways journalist go about reporting and framing their versions of realities. The fourth section attempts to deconstruct the news narratives in terms of risk communication by paying particular attention to how people reacted to the coverage of potential dangers of radiation leaks as well as the tsunami warnings in Tohoku area. In the end, the series of studies described above underlines how cultural factors significantly affected the ways in which the journalists covered Japan in 2011 as well as the ways news audiences understood what was going on. The thesis argues that there are two types of cultural faming that contributed greatly to the social construction of realities in the aftermath of the triple disasters. The first type of cultural framing was observed when reporters consistently made the culture of Japan and its supposedly “unique” values as the main frame of news narratives. It often implied that the Japanese culture was somewhat exotic or alien through foreign eyes. The second type of cultural framing was observed when the cultural dispositions of journalists and audience framed the potential risk such as the incoming tsunami and the vital newsmakers such as workers in Fukushima Daiichi using familiar cultural molds. The finding accentuated the intricacy and precarious nature of “realities” in news reports. The research also indicated that when cultural factors in news process dictate and determine the focal point of reality perception, they tend to bring about racial discussions and stereotypical images in narratives. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18085号 / 理博第3963号 / 新制||理||1571(附属図書館) / 30943 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科地球惑星科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 藤 浩明, 教授 家森 俊彦, 教授 福田 洋一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第19283号 / 工博第4080号 / 新制||工||1629(附属図書館) / 32285 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科社会基盤工学専攻 / (主査)教授 田村 正行, 教授 小池 克明, 准教授 須﨑 純一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM