Disaster Preparedness Drill for Foreign Residents in FY2018

On Wednesday, January 16, Governor Koike attended the Disaster Preparedness Drill for Foreign Residents, held at Komazawa Olympic Park in Setagaya-ku.

This drill has been held since 2006, and targets members of the foreign community living, working, and/or attending school in Tokyo. This year was the thirteenth time this drill was held. Due to differences in language and customs and lack of earthquake experience, foreign residents may be unable to take appropriate action when an earthquake occurs. This event provided hands-on training with the aims of familiarizing foreign residents with disasters and teaching them about disaster preparedness, along with improving the skills of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Disaster Prevention Language Volunteers.

In her greetings at the opening ceremony, Governor Koike said, “I believe that most of the some 550,000 foreigners residing in Tokyo have never experienced a large earthquake. In addition to the earthquakes that occurred in Osaka and Hokkaido last year, western Japan was devastated by torrential rain. It is said that there is a 70% chance a large earthquake will directly strike Tokyo within the next 30 years. In other words, Tokyo will most definitely experience a large earthquake one of these days. That is why we must be prepared.” She continued by saying, “I hope that you will check out the earthquake simulator and the virtual reality disaster vehicle and experience the evacuation shelter. It is important that you both prepare your mind to think before acting, and have your body know what to do by experiencing it here. Today you will take part in drills to strengthen both your mind and body,” “I sincerely hope that this drill will be very rewarding.”

One hundred and twenty-nine embassy personnel and citizen participants from 43 countries and regions took part in the drill. Participants had training on first aid and experienced a virtual reality disaster and life at an evacuation center, hot food preparation and display booths were also set up at the event site. Language volunteers also had a drill on taking phone calls.