Details of the economic fallout were still emerging days after Monday's 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook the Sea of Japan coast. But early repercussions stretched from Japan's top automakers to the country's biggest power company.

As of Thursday, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru vehicles, halted production at some factories because a key parts supplier, Riken Corp., was damaged by the temblor.

The Nikkei business newspaper reported that about 70 percent of Japan's domestic auto production had been interrupted because of the hitch.

Meanwhile, fears of an electricity shortage in the nation's capital swelled after the world's biggest nuclear power plant was shut down indefinitely because of safety concerns. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan's largest utility, was scrambling to ramp up conventional power output after closing the quake-damaged Kashiwazaka-Karima facility in Niigata prefecture, in north-central Japan.

"We will work to the utmost to avoid damage to the economy," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Thursday. "For the factories that suspended operations, the related ministries are striving hard for their early resumption."