Bank of Japan's emergency response

When the earthquake hit Japan at 2.46pm local time on March 11, the shaking of the buildings even in Tokyo, 250 miles from the epicentre, was the worst that residents, who are used to frequent tremors, had ever experienced. I myself was walking in the Japanese garden of my hotel in Shinagawa, a district of Tokyo, when the ground started to undulate under my feet. I watched as the entire 15-story building started rattling, as if a giant had taken it by the