Financial markets in Japan, well prepared for the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, bounced back quickly Thursday after the onset of war. But some experts warned that the nation's fragile economy may be headed for tragedy.
Higher oil prices and a slump in the global economy could hamper Japan's forecast of 0.5 percent economic growth in fiscal 2003, and financial support for a postwar Iraq could blow out already huge government debt, the experts said.
"If it takes more than six weeks to end the war, there will likely be a large impact on the Japanese economy," Daiwa Institute of Research said in a report earlier this week.