Tokyo – Most major cities in Japan, on Thursday said they were prepared to provide multilingual information and aid to foreign residents and tourists in case of natural disasters, local media reported.
According to Kyodo News survey released, 52 Local Governments, constituting almost 80 per cent of the total among Japan’s 47 prefectures and 20 ordinance-designated cities, already have or are planning to establish disaster support centres in multiple languages.
This, it said, was due to the rising number of foreigners.
The central government has encouraged local authorities to establish such centres as many foreign citizens who do not speak Japanese lack vital information during natural disasters.
The survey, conducted in 2019, found that 23 local governments had set up multilingual disaster support functions, but many still lacked the ability to widely spread translations of information from their disaster response headquarters to foreign citizens.
However, about 48 local governments had so far shown interest to set up multilingual facilities or had agreed to establish them with the support of local organisations that promote international exchanges.
The languages used to provide information will differ by region according to their foreign population structure.
According to Kyodo, during the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in North-Eastern Japan, Ibaraki Prefecture transmitted information in eight languages, including English, Chinese, Spanish and Thai. (Xinhua/NAN)