Disaster and evacuation guide: is it sufficient to foreigners?

Dear Editor-in-Chief

Natural disasters kill people and damage the place where people live. The people of the damaged district have to evacuate to a safe zone.

Foreigners who use different languages have difficulty to acquire information about disaster and evacuation guide. However, Japanese government offers disaster prevention and situation for foreigners who are not good at Japanese language. Tohoku earthquake and tsunami attacked the northeast coast of Honshu Island, Japan in 11st Mar 2011. Fukushima nuclear power plant exploded on the next day (1). Miyagi prefecture government operated international supporting system immediately, and broadcasted disaster information on the website via foreign languages –English, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean (2). Chiba prefecture government near Tokyo usually manages disaster-prevention site that is composed as followings: (3)

Emergency and Disasters

Forecasts and Observation

Earthquake and Tsunami

Traffic and Lifeline

Foreigners can obtain the international manual about disaster and evacuation on foreign languages in moving-in notification of Japan. Moreover, Japanese broadcasting company shows careful concern to disabled person. NHK offers disaster broadcasting on subtitle and sign language for visual and hearing impaired person.