Carla Chahrour

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) will hold the Disaster Preparedness Drill for foreign residents Jan. 28 at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza.

TMG has been conducting disaster preparedness drills for foreign residents annually since 2006, with the goal of raising awareness of disaster preparedness amongst the international community.

The purpose of the simulation drills is to raise awareness of the importance of disaster management systems and to improve international residents’ knowledge in order to ensure that every resident may be aware of what they should do during a disaster.

Planned attendees include an estimated 300 foreign residents living, working and studying in Tokyo, and an estimated 40 TMG Disaster Language Volunteers.

The system allows Tokyo residents of all nationalities, including international residents who have attained a certain level of Japanese language skill, to register as volunteers.

The TMG Disaster Language Volunteers is a group of individuals who will support international residents through the provisions of interpretational and translation services during the event of a natural disaster.

Outside of emergency situations, these volunteers may also serve as interpreters when necessary. 796 people, offering support in 17 languages have registered as volunteers in this program as of Nov. 1, 2019.

The event will start with an opening ceremony featuring greetings from the Tokyo Governor Yuriko, followed by drill demonstrations at different locations which will be carried out by the attendees. The drill will then be divided into five sessions including: Learn, Fire, Workshop, Translation and Disaster.

The “Learn” session includes exercises which will be done in order to educate people on how to maintain their physical health whilst being at an evacuation shelter.

The second “Fire” session, includes fire extinguisher drills, and a virtual Earthquake Simulation vehicle which will allow attendees to experience an earthquake and fire stimulation while learning functional survival techniques.

The workshop session focuses on the engagement of handicraft work in order to make basic resources available during a disaster. Finally, the disaster session will comprise of booths displaying preparedness and reduction related methods to improve residents’ knowledge regarding disaster management and ensure that they are aware of the necessary preparations.