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Even though Japan is an important destination for Utah exports, only a handful of companies apparently have employees stationed in the country hit Friday by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake.
One company, Nu Skin International, has 150 employees in Tokyo. All have been accounted for and are fine, said Jordan Karpowitz, spokeswoman for the Provo-based body care and nutritional supplements company.
The employees, who mostly are Japanese, are staying overnight at Nu Skin's office because the earthquake hobbled Tokyo's transportation system, she said.
"The news we've gotten about our employees is everyone is OK. It's a significant occurrence, but things have worked out for the best for that group of people," said Karpowitz.
Huntsman Corp., the chemicals manufacturer, has 42 employees in Tokyo and Kobe, site of a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that damaged much of the city in 1995.
"They are making out all right. We did hear of a couple of guys who were in a hotel, but nothing serious," spokeswoman Anne Knisely said.
Tahitian Noni has about 200 employees in several offices in Tokyo and further south. The Tokyo office shook violently during the temblor, overturning bookshelves and desks, but nobody was injured, said Andre Peterson, spokesman for the Orem-based health beverage maker.
"Some of the staff chose to sleep in the office overnight as the trains were not functioning to take them home. Others decided to walk home, which took four to six hours for many," according to an e-mail sent from Tokyo to Tahitian Noni's headquarters.
The company has no information about its local independent distributors, Peterson said.
Meanwhile, flights into and out of Japan ground to a halt.
Delta Air Lines canceled 29 flights to Tokyo on Friday after officials closed Narita and Haneda airports.
The cancellations do not affect Delta's seasonal route between Salt Lake City International Airport and Narita. That route won't resume until June 2.
Delta is waiving change fees for customers booked on flights to or from airports in Japan through March 15.
Wencor Group, a Springville-based aircraft parts manufacturer, had two employees in Tokyo. Both were unharmed, said spokeswoman Mindy Gutierrez.
One employee said he "is safe and has not been injured at all. But he says that Tokyo is not safe. There are a lot of tremors shaking the hotel and buildings, which makes it very scary," she said.
Another employee was at a Tokyo airport when the earthquake struck. He has been unable to leave the country, Gutierrez said.
Merit Medical Systems doesn't have employees in Japan, but the South Jordan-based medical device manufacturer has developed close relationships with numerous companies in the island country, said Sandra Merrill, assistant to CEO Fred Lampropoulos.
"We do have business associates that are OK … we have been in touch with most of them," Merrill said.
Merrill said Merit hasn't heard any horror stories from the company's Japanese associates. She hopes she won't hear any.
"The news is bad enough," she said.
Japan was Utah's 10th largest export destination in 2010, largely because of the high price of gold, which pushed export values to record levels in other gold-hungry countries like India and Switzerland, according to Brett Heimburger, Asia trade and diplomacy director at the Governor's Office of Economic Development, whose wife is Japanese.
In an e-mail forwarded to The Salt Lake Tribune by GOED spokesman Michael Sullivan, Heimburger said he contacted his wife's family in Japan after the temblor. What he heard was frightening.
"My sister-in-law told me that after the quake in central Tokyo all transportation was shut down. So everyone was in the streets.
"She said you don't realize how many people 36 million is, until they all pour into the streets at the same time," Heimburger said.