Lily employs about 700 people in Japan, 250 in the Kobe area.

The major highways and rail lines outside the Kobe area are also unaffected.

But only 3 percent of the people in the Kobe area had earthquake insurance, partly because premiums were so high.

The police reported that more than 7,000 buildings had been destroyed, mostly in the Kobe area.

Some 10,000 Americans are reported to be living in the Osaka and Kobe area.

The quake was the worst in the Kobe area in hundreds of years, seismologists said.

Those that are dependent on suppliers in the Kobe area thus may have to halt production quickly.

Some of the first cargo that will be brought in, he said, will be relief supplies for the Kobe area.

Although schools are beginning to reopen in the Kobe area, particularly in neighborhoods that were not badly damaged, more than 290 remain closed.

He said he had found it difficult to get in touch with customers in the Kobe area because phone service has been spotty.