Challenges of Foreigners in Times of Disasters- With a Focus on Information Dissemination in Fukuoka City -Ikuyo Kikusawa
Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center

Foreigners suffering from disasters in Japan[2016 Kumamoto earthquakes]
Affected foreigners suffer from language barriers,
difficult to obtain information, isolated in shelters,
difficult to find a place to live...

[2019 Typhoon Hagibis]
Foreigners lost due to cancellation[2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake]
Overseas visitors “I want to return home soon”.

[2019 Typhoon Hagibis]
Tatami mats and other householditems are seen scattered in thedormitory room of Vietnamese
technical intern trainee[2019 Typhoon Hagibis]
32-year-old Nepali points to where floodwaters reachedSource: Nikkei 2016.5.2 , Sankei 2019.10.12, Nikkei 2018.9.8,
The Mainichi 2019.11.5 in clockwise from the top left

Challenges and Trends of Foreigners in times of Disasters
Category

Visitors

Residents• Can’t communicate with facility staff• Can’t read the information display.
Language• Can't understand announcements• General conversation is okay, but disaster
related terms are not• Difficult to understand the information
correctly• Not used to disasters• Can‘t participate in evacuation drills
Preconditions • Not familiar with the local geography• The way of reading maps differs• Need to return to ones home country• Don’t know the system of Japanese shelter• Anxious about the safety of their home
• Not used to disasters• Different in the way of reading maps
• Need to put ones lives back• No acquaintance
Psychological • Away from native tongue
anxiety • Tend to go panic due to unfamiliarity todisasterNo clear boundary between
visitors and residents• Visitors may have highJapanese language skills• Don't know if it’s okay to go to the shelter• Residents may want to• Tend to isolate oneself from the community
return to ones country(at shelters)• Away from native tongue➡ Needs and• Don't know where to search and what to• Don't know where to search and what tosearchsearchInformation • Wi-Fi and charging station for mobile devices • Tend to use familiar search engines and SNS
become important due to an increased use
gatheringof smartphone• Tend to use familiar search engines and SNS
Life culture• Dietary restrictions due to religion, allergies,
eating habits, etc.

However,• Dietary restrictions due to religion, allergies,
eating habits, etc.

challenges varycase by caseTypes of Information collected by foreigners
Types ofinformation

Disaster and damage
information

Evacuation andsafety

Information neededfor ones life

Safety information

Examples of information

Common /Individual• What's happening?
• Weather information• Size of disaster• What will happen (aftershocks, typhoon)• Infrastructure damage, scope of damage• Radioactivity

ComComComComComCom• What should I do?
• How to cope with disasters• Where to evacuate on the go• About shelters

ComComComComInd• Traffic operation status• Other social infrastructure (gas, water, electricity,communication)• Status in ones neighborhood• Ones itineraries• Procedures for returning to ones country• Information on embassies

ComComIndInd• Safety of family and friends• Contact with ones home country

ComIndInd
Ind
IndIndInd
Ind

Need to pay more attention
to "Individual" information!
• The holders and senders of“individual information”
dispersed• Limited capacity inmultilingual support anddissemination• Difficult to obtain information
about ones neighborhoods(China, Female, Age 20 who
experienced the Great EastJapan Earthquake)Disaster Management Headquarters is set up at a local government
as the fundamental unit  Information is gathered at LG

Fukuoka Convention & Visitors
Bureau✔

Background information such as
geography, evacuation shelters

Love FM✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Handbook of Disaster Prevention for
Printed Foreigners
material Disaster Prevention Leaflet for
Foreign Travelers
AppDisaster prevention App"Tsunagaru"+ (Plus)

EmailCity’s emergency alert✔

✔

✔

Safety confirmation✔

Communication✔

Opening status offacilities

Fukuoka City International
Foundation

Stock information

Disaster information✔

Infrastructuredamage
Status oftransportation
Communication andcharging

City’s Official City Guide "Yokanavi"

Embassy information-

Stranded people

City HP

Medical information

Shelter location

How to evacuate

Disaster assumption

Preparation at home

How to respond todisasters

Radio

About shelters

HP

Fukuoka City's Information
Dissemination Tool

Knowledge ofdisaster
Multi-language
supportMediaFlow information

✔

-

✔

-

Information after disaster occurs--

✔

✔

----

Need to clarify who does what amongstakeholders✔

✔

✔

Disaster prevention aid for foreign residents and visitors– Fukuoka

Website in 8 languages: easy Japanese,English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese,Nepali, Indonesian and Filipino

Leaflet in 7 languages: English, Chinese (traditional /simplified), Korean, Thai, Italian and French

Handbook in 7 languages: easy Japanese, English,Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Nepali

Call centers and alert services in times of disaster– Fukuoka

4 languages

Easy Japanese, English,
Chinese and Korean

Fukuoka City’s Call Center for Disaster Informationin 18 languages

Tripartite communication

Foreigners

Interpreter

18 languages

CenterWhat means are used for information gathering in disasters?
Foreign residents
Radio inRadio inJapanesenative tongue
6% Newspaper2%
in nativetongue
6%
JapaneseJapaneseTV
newspaper
35%
9%Japanesewebsite15%

Website ofhomecountry
8%

Email andword ofmouth
fromfriends
19%

Overseas visitors
Call center

Others2%

10%

Information
center4%•Japanese
TV/radio19%

Companions
who speakJapanese
15%
Facility
staff
10%

Messages
and SNS
fromfriends
16%••

Website ofJapanesewebsite8%

homecountry•

16%（左）サーベイリサーチセンターによる来訪者へのアンケート調査（熊本地震（2016.4）、大阪府北部地震（2018.6）、北海道胆振東部地震（2018.9）、台風24号（2018.10）、台風19号（2019.10））を加工・編集（右）米倉（2013）による東日本大震災発災時に日本に在住していた外国人へのアンケート調査をもとに加工・編集

Both residents and visitors use
TV as their primary means ofcollecting information
Both residents and visitors use email / SNS among acquaintances
Visitors choose information
gathering methods that have lesslanguage barriers, such as theirhome country website orcompanions who understandJapanese
Visitors prefer interactive
communication such as with
their companions and facility staff

Language capacity of foreign residents in Fukuoka CityIs textual information the best? Is English versatile?
for effective information dissemination

話す

To listen Japanese isbetter than to read Japanese

聞くSpeak

読む

Listen書く

ReadWrite

Japanese and English skills (foreign residents in Fukuoka City)
FluentできるSomewhat
少しできる

全くできないNot at all

日本語Japanese
English英語

日本語 0%
Japanese
英語
English20%

40%

日本語 0%
Japanese20%

40%

日本語 0%
Japanese

20%

40%

0%

20%

40%

English英語
English
英語

60%
I can
read kanji a bit
60%80%
I can only read hiragana.

100%

80%

100%

80%

100%

60%
80%
Japanese ability is better thanEnglish ability

100%

60%

* Processed the data from “Questionnaire Survey for Foreign Residents in Fukuoka City,” 2019 （福岡市外国籍市民アンケート報告書（2019）

Different Japanese language skills by nationality(foreign residents in Fukuoka City)
話す能力
Speak

0%

20%40%60%80%100%

中国（台湾含む）
China (inc Taiwan)

聞く能力
Listen0%20%40%60%80%100%

中国（台湾含む）
China (inc Taiwan)

韓国
Korea

韓国
Korea

ベトナム
Vietnam

ベトナム
Vietnam

Nepal
ネパール

Nepal
ネパール

Fluent
自由に話せる

Somewhat
少し話せる

Not at all
全く話せないほとんど聞き取れる
Fluent

少し聞き取れる
Somewhat

全く聞き取れない
Not at all

Listening ability is better than reading ability for Vietnamese and Nepali

読む能力
Read

0%

20%40%60%80%100%書く能力
Write

20%

40%60%80%

100%

中国（台湾含む）
China (inc Taiwan)

中国（台湾含む）
China (inc Taiwan)
韓国
Korea

韓国
Korea

ベトナム
Vietnam

ベトナム
Vietnam

ネパール
Nepal
漢字も含めて読める
Fluent
ひらがなしか読めない
Only Hiragana

0%

Nepal
ネパール
漢字も少し読める
Some Kanji
全く読めないNot at all

Fluent
漢字も書ける

Somewhat
ひらがなしか書けない

Easy Japanese is helpful* Processed the data from “Questionnaire Survey for Foreign Residents in Fukuoka City,” 2019 （福岡市外国籍市民アンケート報告書（2019）

全く書けないNot at allComposition of foreign residents have been changed in Fukuoka City
34,114（persons）
No nationality

30,990Other

28,818Latin America

27,4591,132

25,963
22,943

Others 21%
18,298 18,509

East Asian (Kanji)
cultural sphere

776
77
73

6,526

79% Korean
and Chineseorigin

863
91
110

6,387

19,229

933
124
146

6,456

19,893

779
165
186

20,405

841
163
215

6,356

24,555 24,155

859
216
298

1,076
1,039

21,277

1,008

879
279
411

899
307
473

955
426
624

914
485
867

944
1,335

2,006

1,712

2,503

4,587

2,482

3,172

Other Asia
Other ASEAN

3,260

3,369

Other Europe

3,807FranceThailand
UK

6,271
6,408

23,651

6,226

6,277

6,242

6,198

6,264

6,236

6,351

6,403

6,339

Indonesia
USA
Philippines
Vietnam

7,846

8,031

8,423

9,150

9,678

10,328Others 45%

11,693

12,176

12,526

11,911

11,840

11,246

11,016

11,38911,823

Nepal

55% Korean
and ChineseoriginKorea or Korea
TaiwanChina

2003

Source: FUKUOKA growth 2020 #3

2004

Figure 2

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

11

Take home message
1. Many have their own device to look into what they want to know The more local the more difficult to access (due to the location of information andthe language of information)

2. Local governments hold local information the best But the foreigners are likely to look at not the government website but Japanese
TV and foreign websites
 Local governments are not good at information dissemination (poor marketingskills!)

3. The composition of foreign-born residents has been changed
 The style of travelling needs to be analysed, too

4. Information dissemination measures need to be met with the tendencyof foreigners searching schemes
5. Necessary to establish a stakeholder network (public and private) for
information collection and dissemination to complement each other This must be done in peacetime