Despite many more deaths than in the US this
summer to hurricanes, the financial losses in
Japan were thankfully much lighter. I wonder
if it is related to property depreciation
practices in Japan.

http://tinyurl.com/64rot

Typhoon damage soars past 100 billion yen

Three powerful typhoons that hit Japan in
August and September caused some 128 billion
yen in damage across the country to
agricultural produce, government officials
have said.

[snip]

Their initial results show that farms,
businesses and the general public sustained
81.8 billion yen damage to agricultural
produce and facilities in typhoon No. 21. The
damage from typhoon No. 23 was larger at
147.1 billion yen. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan,
Nov. 5, 2004)

--
 "I'm on top of the world right now, because
everyone's going to know that I can shove
more than three burgers in my mouth!"