It could very well have that effect. Picture the large areas that are completely devestated. There are piles of cars, piles of buildings, etc. The first thing that has to happen is for all of that stuff to be hauled off before any rebuilding can be done. That leads to the question of, Where are the facilities that refine the scrap? There may be one or two of them that were leveled in the process. However, Japan is relatively small and trucking to any other facility on the island is not a big deal I guess.

Let's go scrapping in Japan!

I do feel for them and can not comprehend what they are going through. Imagine the death toll if they get a deep freeze for a few days. While the devestation was only on a small part of the country, everyone there is getting power a third of the time due to rolling blackouts because of the loss of power plants.