In the aftermath of killer tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake off Indonesia on Sunday, Japanese companies with ties to the affected areas worry that local economies and business in general will become the next casualties.

ANA Sales & Tours Co., a travel agent affiliated with All Nippon Airways Co., has suspended tours to the Thai resort town of Phuket and other devastated areas until Jan. 8. Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. has canceled tours to some hotels in Phuket.

JTB Corp. had forecast an 8.8-percent increase in the number of Japanese travelers, to 320,000, to other Asian nations from the year-end through the New Year holidays.

But the number of outbound travelers is now expected to fall short of the projection.

The revisions come just as foreign tourists were making their way back to Southeast Asian countries following the outbreak of avian flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Iraqi war.

According to the Tokyo branch of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the number of foreign tourists who visited the country last year was 10.08 million, including about 1 million Japanese.

Thai officials fear any decline in tourist figures will have an adverse impact on the economy, as annual revenues from tourism stood at $7.45 billion (782 billion yen) last year.

The tsunami could not have struck at a worse time-the year-end is the height of the tourist season in Thailand, whose dry season spans from November through March.

Similarly, the number of overseas tourists to Malaysia and Indonesia last year was 10.57 million and 4.46 million respectively, according to the ASEAN-Japan Center.

Japanese electronics and other companies doing business in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, meanwhile, have yet to report any major setbacks due to the disaster, according to the Japan External Trade Organization.

Most firms have set up manufacturing bases inland, and in the case of Indonesia, far from the quake's epicenter.

Japan-bound liquefied natural gas export facilities in Arun, at the northern tip of Sumatra island close to the epicenter, reported no damage.

A more immediate concern to Japanese firms is the indirect damage caused by the tsunami, such as suspension of operations due to stalled distribution networks.

A port in the eastern Indian coastal city of Chennai, a base for Japanese auto-related firms to unload materials for transportation inland, has been temporarily shut down. The port was scheduled to reopen late Tuesday.

In the event the port does not reopen as planned, Denso Corp., an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp., is considering possible alternatives to transport radiator components from Japan to its factory in Bangalore, India.(IHT/Asahi: December 29,2004)