Japan faces its worst crisis since 1945

In response to the fact that many financial institutions located in the disaster-hit area conducted their business in order to respond to withdrawal of deposits smoothly, the Bank of Japan, Head Office and some of its branches, responded to cash withdrawal by the financial institutions to support such initiatives.

The BoJ said in a statement on Sunday that it has extended a total of 55 billion yen to 13 financial institutions in the quake-struck northeast of Japan since Saturday to help them secure enough funds to meet deposit withdrawals.

"The Bank will continue to grasp the situation of the financial markets and business operations of financial institutions, and to stand ready to respond and act as necessary. The Bank will do its utmost to continue ensuring stability in the financial markets and securing smooth settlement of funds, including provisioning liquidity.", said the official statement.

The Bank, Head Office and all of its branches, will conduct its ordinary business operations on Monday, March 14, 2011.

Possible large-scale power outages

Prime Minister Kan Naoto Kan said Sunday night in a televised press conference that Japan faces large-scale power outages, with lack of supplies of gas, water and other essentials.

The Minister also asked the citizens to work toghter to 'build a new Japan'. Kan also said Japan is now facing its biggest crisis since World War II after last week's earthquake and tsunami.

Nuclear power authorities here are working to avert a nuclear crisis after last week's massive earthquake damaged cooling systems in several reactors, two of them seriously.

source: fxstreet.com