5 days ago
Foreign tourists received tsunami warnings but need better alerts
The Sendai Tourism Convention and International Association posts information about tsunami alerts in easy-to-understand Japanese on its Facebook account on July 30. (Chika Yamamoto)
When tsunami alerts went out across a wide area of Japan on July 30, many foreign tourists were left in the dark to the threat and the recommended course of action due to the language barrier.
Eugénie Decaux, 21, who was visiting Shirahama in Wakayama Prefecture from France, said, 'I had trouble finding information about the tsunami because I could only find it in Japanese at first.'
A woman from the Philippines who was visiting Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture said she received an emergency message about the tsunami warning.
However, she said, 'The English announcement after the siren was very short and there was little information, so it was scary.'
At first, she said she did not think it was a big deal, but after researching on the internet and seeing the staff at the temple she was visiting in a panic, she realized the gravity of the situation.
The tsunami alerts issued after a powerful earthquake originating near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula sent foreign tourists scrambling for safety as well.
On social media, multiple videos were seen posted by tourists from overseas, showing them heading to higher ground and evacuation centers alongside with residents.
From the Japanese side, there were many initiatives to convey information to foreigners in multiple languages and in easy-to-understand Japanese.
The Sendai Tourism Convention and International Association, located in the capital of Miyagi Prefecture on the Pacific coast where a tsunami warning was issued, posted evacuation calls on X and Facebook in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Nepali.
The organization also communicated in easy Japanese with warnings such as 'A big wave is coming' and "Please escape to a high place.'
Television stations displayed subtitles in hiragana within their programs, using phrases such as "tsunami" and "run away." There were also examples of displaying English text reading "EVACUATION TSUNAMI."
An app called 'Safety tips' provides disaster information for foreign travelers in 15 languages, including English, Chinese and Tagalog. The Japan Tourism Agency supervised the creation of the app.
The Japan Meteorological Agency's website also disseminates the latest tsunami information in 15 languages.
However, some tourists said such efforts were still not enough.
According to the Immigration Services Agency, approximately 36.78 million foreigners entered Japan last year, the highest number on record. As of the end of last year, the number of foreign residents also reached a record high of about 3.77 million.
Isao Nakamura, a professor at Toyo University specializing in disaster information studies, points out the importance of "push-type" information provision, such as area emails and emergency radio messages sent by local governments through mobile phone companies, which reach users without them having to search for it.
He also said that there is a study indicating that emergency radios are effective as a medium for conveying tsunami information.
'In areas with many foreign residents, it is necessary to make disaster prevention radios multilingual,' he said.
He also said that explaining the difference between tsunami advisories and tsunami warnings is difficult.
'It is important to use illustrations and think of expressions that are easy to understand,' he said.
