Our thoughts are with the Japanese people this week as the whole world comes to terms with images of one of the most horrific natural disasters ever. As an international business with translators spread across the globe, events such as the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan last week resonate deeply with us and whilst we hope all of our associates in Japan are safe, we can only imagine the sense of shock and despair they must feel.

Even the catalogue of events striking other nations such as Thailand’s tsunami, Haiti ‘s earthquake and most recently the earthquake in New Zealand, each of them awful, still do not prepare for the shock of yet another disaster of even greater severity.

A skilled British rescue team left Manchester this weekend bound for Japan and we hope that their involvement may yet save some lives. We wish them well and hope for their safe return. For the rest of us we can only watch events unfold and hope that this proud Japanese nation, whilst bowed, will remain unbroken and will recover from this truly awful event.