Japan: Warnings, Tsunami Evacuation, and Reuniting

Emergency earthquake alert on a phone screen with a Japanese coastal town in the background

Japan: Warnings, Tsunami Evacuation, Reuniting, and Replacing Lost Documents

Overview: seconds, then minutes, then weeks

Japanese disaster warning works on three timescales, and each needs a different reflex. Seconds — the earthquake early warning, where the only useful action is to protect your body. Minutes — tsunami evacuation, where the only useful action is to go up, immediately, without waiting. Weeks — reunification and rebuilding your paperwork, where the useful actions are systems most people have never used.

Earthquake Early Warning (緊急地震速報)

Operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (気象庁, JMA). Seismometers detect the fast, harmless P-wave and estimate the destructive S-wave that follows. You get from a couple of seconds to roughly a minute, depending on distance from the epicentre — directly above the epicentre you may get no warning at all.

The alert arrives as a distinctive two-tone chime on TV, radio, and phones, and as 緊急速報メール / エリアメール — a broadcast push that sounds even if your phone is on silent, requires no app, and cannot be opted out of on Japanese carriers.

What to do in those seconds — nothing clever: 1. Drop, cover, hold on. Get under a sturdy table, protect your head and neck, hold the leg so it does not travel away from you. 2. Do not run outside. Falling glass, tiles, and signage make the area immediately outside a building the most dangerous place. 3. Do not spend your seconds turning off the gas. Modern Japanese gas meters have a built-in seismic cutoff that trips automatically. Protect your head instead; deal with the gas after the shaking stops. 4. If cooking, only turn off the burner if it is within arm's reach without crossing the room. 5. In bed, stay there and cover your head with a pillow — most injuries come from moving through a dark shaking room. 6. Driving: switch on hazard lights, slow gradually, pull to the left, and stop. If you must abandon the car, leave the key in it and the doors unlocked so emergency crews can move it, and take your documents.

震度 (shindo) is not magnitude — and it is the number that matters to you

Magnitude (マグニチュード) describes the energy of the earthquake — one number for the whole event. 震度 (shindo) describes the shaking where you are, on a JMA scale from 0 to 7, with 5 and 6 each split into weak (弱) and strong (強): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5弱, 5強, 6弱, 6強, 7.

Rough guide: 5弱 is where unsecured furniture starts to move and it becomes hard to walk. 6弱 is where it becomes impossible to stand and wooden houses with low earthquake resistance begin to suffer serious damage. 6強 and 7 mean widespread structural destruction. Japanese broadcasts lead with shindo by municipality, not magnitude — that is the number to listen for.

Tsunami: the rules that save lives

Warnings come in three tiers from JMA: 津波注意報 (advisory), 津波警報 (warning), and 大津波警報 (major tsunami warning) — the last being a 特別警報 (emergency warning), the highest category in the Japanese system.

  1. Do not wait for a warning if you feel strong or long shaking near the coast. The shaking is the warning. A near-field tsunami can arrive in a few minutes — faster than any official message.
  2. Go UP, not inland. Distance is a poor substitute for height. Use a designated 津波避難タワー (tsunami evacuation tower) or 津波避難ビル (designated tsunami evacuation building) — usually marked with a blue-and-white wave symbol — and get as high as you can.
  3. 津波てんでんこ. A Sanriku coastal tradition meaning roughly "each person, evacuate on your own, immediately." Do not spend minutes gathering family; agree in advance that everyone evacuates independently and reunites afterwards at a set point. The tradition exists because waiting for others has killed whole families, and the culture of drilling it is credited in the survival of schoolchildren in Kamaishi in 2011.
  4. The first wave is usually not the largest. Waves arrive in a train over hours.
  5. Do not go back for belongings, the car, or to look. Returning between waves is a recurring cause of death.
  6. A tsunami is not a breaking wave — it behaves like a fast, debris-laden flood that keeps rising, and the outflow is as lethal as the inflow.
  7. Remember the 避難場所 / 避難所 distinction: go to the site designated for tsunami, not simply to the shelter you know. A shelter inside the inundation zone is not a tsunami refuge.

Reuniting: the systems to learn before you need them

災害用伝言ダイヤル 171

A national voice message board operated by NTT, activated during major disasters. Phone networks block ordinary calls under load, but 171 stays available.

web171 and carrier boards

web171.jp is the web equivalent, keyed the same way by phone number, and it accepts text and can notify registered contacts. Each mobile carrier also runs a 災害用伝言板 in its app. Additionally, Google Person Finder is activated for large disasters.

Practical family plan

  1. Agree on one key phone number for 171 and web171.
  2. Agree on two meeting points: one near home, one outside the neighbourhood.
  3. Nominate an out-of-area relative as a relay — long-distance routes often work when local ones are saturated.
  4. Text rather than call. SMS and data messaging get through congestion that blocks voice.
  5. Keep a printed card in each wallet with the key number, meeting points, and the relay contact. Phones die.

Replacing what you lost

Losing documents feels catastrophic and is largely recoverable. Municipalities set up dedicated counters after major disasters, and fees are typically waived on presentation of the 罹災証明書.

Foreign residents and visitors

  1. 在留カード (residence card) — report loss and apply for reissue at the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁); there is a statutory deadline (normally 14 days from discovering the loss), and disaster circumstances are taken into account.
  2. Contact your embassy or consulate — they can issue emergency travel documents and relay your status to family abroad.
  3. NHK WORLD-JAPAN broadcasts disaster information in multiple languages, and NHK provides simplified-Japanese (やさしい日本語) bulletins — often easier to follow than standard news Japanese.
  4. Safety tips — the Japan Tourism Agency's official multilingual push-alert app, which relays EEW, tsunami and evacuation information in English, Chinese, Korean and others.
  5. 多言語支援センター (multilingual support centres) are opened by prefectures after major disasters, and local international associations (国際交流協会) provide interpreters for municipal procedures.
  6. Disaster aid does not depend on nationality. Residents can receive 罹災証明書, shelter, temporary housing and the support grants regardless of citizenship. Ask for interpretation rather than assuming you are ineligible.

Quick reference

  1. 緊急地震速報 chime → drop, cover, hold on. Do not run outside; do not chase the gas valve.
  2. 震度 (0–7 with 5弱/5強/6弱/6強), not magnitude, tells you what your area experienced.
  3. Strong or long shaking on the coast is itself the tsunami warning. Do not wait for an alert.
  4. Go UP. 津波避難タワー / 津波避難ビル. Height beats distance.
  5. 津波てんでんこ — evacuate independently, agree the reunion point in advance.
  6. The first wave is rarely the biggest. Never go back.
  7. 171 / web171 — agree ONE key phone number as a family; practise on the 1st and 15th.
  8. Text, don't call. Use an out-of-area relay contact. Carry a printed card.
  9. Medical care works without your insurance card after a declared disaster.
  10. Banks allow emergency withdrawals on ID alone; the 法務局 holds your property register.
  11. Foreign residents: reissue 在留カード at immigration, use Safety tips and やさしい日本語 NHK bulletins.
  12. Aid is not restricted by nationality — ask for an interpreter.

Sources and legal basis

Warning tiers, deadlines and reissue procedures are set nationally but administered locally. Confirm specifics with your municipality, 気象庁, or your embassy.