About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing.

Toshiyuki Suzuki, 61, has a heart pacemaker and takes seven kinds of medicine a day. He lost all of them when the waves swept away his home, along with his father and son.

He cannot go to hospitals because there is no gasoline at local fuel stations. “I am having problems with walking and with my heartbeat. I absolutely need medicine.”

Kan has said Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two.

Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist for Japan at Credit Suisse, said in a note to clients that the economic loss will likely be around 14-15 trillion yen ($171-183 billion) just to the region hit by the quake and tsunami.

Even that would put it above the commonly accepted cost of the 1995 Kobe quake which killed 6,000 people.

The earthquake has forced many firms to suspend production and global companies - from semiconductor makers to shipbuilders - face disruptions to operations after the quake and tsunami destroyed vital infrastructure, damaged ports and knocked out factories.

“The earthquake could have great implications on the global economic front,” said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lec Securities in New York. “If you shut down Japan, there could be a global recession.”

###

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO