S&P cuts Japan outlook, ‘rebuilding may hit $600B’

TOKYO: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday cut its outlook on Japan’s sovereign debt following last month’s quake-tsunami disaster and warned that reconstruction costs could pass $600 billion.

It said, however, that the March 11 disaster, which obliterated whole towns on the northeast coast, left 26,000 people dead or missing and triggered a nuclear crisis, would not hurt Japan’s medium-term growth potential.