Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said Thursday his country would recover faster than expected from a devastating earthquake and tsunami, brushing aside suggestions of a new "lost decade."
"The recovery of the Japanese economy will be much faster than believed and it is already in an accelerated phase," Matsumoto said during a news conference with his Brazilian counterpart Antonio Patriota, after talks in the South American nation.
Matsumoto was asked about comments by the Moody's ratings agency that the Asian giant could face a "third lost decade" as it rebuilds from the March 11 disaster.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out reactor cooling systems at the crippled Fukushima power plant, triggering meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Matsumoto acknowledged the economy "is not something you can fix the overnight," but added that the outlook "is not as tragic" as predicted by the financial rating agencies.
Patriota said he shares the view that Japan will "become re-energized" through its reconstruction.
"I visited Japan shortly after the earthquake and saw the reconstruction efforts," he said. "Brazil participated in this effort, with government support and the mobilization of the large Brazilian community in Japan."
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes, farms and businesses in a 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone around the radiation-spewing Fukushima plant, with evacuation pockets also further afield.
Scores of communities along the northern Pacific coast were destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami, which left 23,000 dead or missing.
