Japanese stocks bounced back from Monday's slide, with electronics
manufacturer Sony Corp climbing 6.7 percent after saying its image
sensor plant in Kumamoto, shut after the quake, makes components
mainly for digital cameras.
Flights resumed to the damaged airport in the southwestern area of
Kumamoto, which suffered the worst of the damage, but aftershocks
continued to rattle the region and survivors spent another night
huddled in cars and evacuation centers, afraid to return to their
damaged homes.
"It's really tough," one woman told TV Asahi, her two-month-old baby
sleeping in blankets on the floor, at her side.
"There's no milk and only the diapers we brought with us. Once they
run out, there's nothing."
About 30,000 rescuers dug through mud and splintered houses, and
Japanese media reported that one of those missing was pulled out
without signs of life on Tuesday, four days after the worst quake
struck in the early hours of Saturday.
Eight remain missing and more than 1,000 were injured.
More than 94,000 people remained in evacuation centers, cut off from
the world by destroyed roads, but television footage showed relief
goods being unloaded from planes at the main airport and water
services gradually being restored.
"These quakes have produced massive damage, and police, firemen and
military personnel are making every effort to restore things," Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference, warning of
further aftershocks.
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A 5.8-magnitude quake hit the area late on Monday. Of more than 600
quakes hitting Kyushu since Thursday, more than 87 have registered
at least a four on Japan's intensity scale, strong enough to shake
buildings.
The Kumamoto region is an important manufacturing hub and home to
Japan's only operating nuclear station, which has been declared
safe.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 3.7 percent to 16,869.29 in mid-morning
trade, with major exporters rebounding sharply after tumbling on
Monday, hit by a stronger yen and worries that the earthquakes could
disrupt their supply chains.
A 9-magnitude quake and tsunami in northern Japan in March 2011
caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, shutting
down the nuclear industry for safety checks and sending radiation
spewing across the countryside.
Nearly 20,000 people were killed in the 2011 tsunami.
(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
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