Local Japanese executives trying to reach family

Mikio Yamashita of Naperville found out about the earthquake at 6:30 a.m. Friday after reading an e-mail from a colleague.

Since then, he has been trying to contact family members living in the area of Tochigi prefecture and Chiba in eastern Japan.

“I have not had phone conversation so far because it (the line) is very busy,” said Yamashita, president of Mitutoyo America Corp., an Aurora-based manufacturer of precision measuring equipment and a subsidiary of Mitutoyo Corp. headquartered in Kawasaki, Japan.

Yamashita was able to get through to his wife and son by e-mail. They are safe and their house didn’t suffer damage, he said. His daughter, he said, who works in Tokyo is still stuck at her office since travel throughout the area has been disrupted by the continued aftershocks.

“Still they have no power,” he added.

Tsukasa Noda of Wheaton, head of finance for Mitutoyo America Corp., said his wife and children also living in Chiba were luckily uninjured but “the house is a mess.” Noda spoke with his wife Friday afternoon after trying for hours.

Apart from broken dishes and books strewed about the house, Noda doesn’t yet know the extent of the damage.