Tokyo NPO founder shows foreign residents how to survive disasters

[yuiyoshida]

Motoko Kimura explains her earthquake seminars in an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo on July 22. | YOSHIAKI MIURA

No one can truly be prepared for a calamity like the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, even for Japanese who have gone through disaster drills regularly since childhood to learn how to react.

But for non-Japanese residents who don’t speak the language, the experience could be horrifying, not being able to understand news or instructions provided at evacuation centers that may prove critical to survival.

And that was exactly what Motoko Kimura, 37, witnessed during the unprecedented quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in March 2011, where damage in the Tokyo metropolitan area was minor compared with hard-hit Tohoku but fear was sky high.

“Even foreigners who used Japanese on a daily basis were in fear, as they had no idea where to get information and trouble understanding what was reported on TV as the sirens blared outside,” Kimura recalled.

This prompted Kimura, then a Japanese-language teacher on maternity leave, to get together with friends to launch a disaster-preparedness workshop in English for foreign residents in May 2011, offering practical tips on how to react when the next big quake strikes.

more..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/07/31/national/tokyo-npo-founder-shows-foreign-residents-survive-disasters/