How the aggregate demand and supply equilibrium has changed since the tragic recent events in Japan?

Question:

1) How the aggregate demand and supply equilibrium has changed since the tragic recent events in Japan?

2) Did the aggregate demand and real GDP increased or decreased? Explain why.

Answer:

The situation is not over by a long shot. So there are more chapters to this story to be written. But so far the economic effects are quite negative. Air travel to Japan has strongly decreased, hurting the carriers. There are far fewer Japanese tourists going for trips abroad at the moment as well, even as much as 50% less at major destinations like the US west coast, which hurts restaurants, hotels, stores and tour companies. Many car makers, even US ones, have some parts made in factories near the disaster site - and this will sharply hurt production.
Japanese semiconductors are widely used in everything around you, and now there is a production shortage - manufacture will have to be moved elsewhere, which will cost time and money. Japan will need a lot of oil for energy to replace the nuclear plant, adding more to world demand. So you can see both demand and supply are effected, and GDP will take a major hit for the next few months at least.