A major task facing government officials dealing with the Great East Japan Earthquake was how to transmit reports about the unprecedented damage to a worldwide audience.
A major task facing government officials dealing with the Great East Japan Earthquake was how to transmit reports about the unprecedented damage to a worldwide audience.
To seek out needed assistance and to restrain excessive rumors and false speculation required the relaying of timely and accurate information.
In many ways, the Japanese language served as a barrier to passing on information to a world wanting to know what was happening and how it could help.
So, a training facility for the Japan International Cooperation Agency located in Tokyo's Shibuya district has been transformed into the front-line headquarters of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), as marked by the blue flag displayed in a hallway.
Foreign and Japanese workers based in the room use computers and telephones to gather information and compile reports in English on the damage from the earthquake and tsunami.
A news report from BBC on a TV in the room carries a story about the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
On the wall is a map of the Tohoku region, while a whiteboard includes a list of the activities being carried out by rescue workers who have come to Japan from around the world.
The UNDAC team was led by Arjun Katoch, 63, from India, and also had members from Britain, South Korea, Sweden and France. The team arrived in Japan by March 14, three days after the earthquake and were joined by two Japanese officials.
For major disasters, UNDAC normally will set up a front-line headquarters near the disaster area and gather information about damage and coordinate relief efforts while members live in tents.
However, for the Japanese disaster, the most needed mission for the UNDAC team was transmitting information to a global audience. For that reason, the headquarters was established not where the heaviest disaster damage was, but in Tokyo where domestic information was the easiest to obtain.
Compared to developing nations, Japan already has a framework in place to deal with natural disasters. However, language barriers made the transmission of information difficult.
When an earthquake struck New Zealand or when hurricanes hit the United States, local news reports were simply transmitted as is to a global audience.
In Japan, however, even though domestic media organizations and government offices provided volumes of information over the Internet, it was usually only in Japanese. So, those living in other countries and planning to come to Japan to provide assistance did not immediately know what was necessary.
The foreign media reporting out of Japan also tended to focus on the awful damage from the disasters as well as concerns about the Fukushima nuclear accident, while not providing much information about the overall disaster damage and what specific assistance was needed.
After discussions between the UNDAC team and Foreign Ministry officials, the decision was reached to focus on accurate transmission of information to the international community, partly because UNDAC is experienced in such work.
The UNDAC team met with representatives of Japanese nongovernmental organizations and gathered information by contacting rescue teams from the various nations that were already in the field.
Japanese members of the team gathered information from Japanese-language websites and helped with translating that information into English.
The reports compiled based on such work were posted on a website, Relief Web, that those working on relief efforts around the world could access. The website can be found at (http://www.reliefweb.int).
The reports were initially posted on a daily basis and one document provided information on the overall damage picture as well as what relief needs existed.
For example, the Situation Report No. 5, posted on March 16, included a translation of what the Japanese government said disaster victims needed: "blankets, mattresses, latrines, water and fuel."
Katoch said that while the media's attention was on Fukushima, where the nuclear accident occurred, his team would continue to grasp the bigger picture and provide accurate and useful information to relief organizations around the world.
Accurate information is also important in areas other than accepting relief efforts.
The central government established an international public relations office last summer to deal with foreign media because of a sense that the situation in Japan was not well-known abroad.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Motohisa Furukawa was made in charge of the effort and he appointed Noriyuki Shikata, a former Foreign Ministry official, as deputy Cabinet secretary for public relations to be in charge of transmitting information to a foreign audience.
The team has six members, including Yoshimitsu Kaji, who has worked in publicity for Nissan Motor Co. and Time Warner Inc.
Having attended the World Economic Forum at Davos and other international conferences, Furukawa is painfully aware of the need to transmit information in English.
Although the Foreign Ministry has an International Press Division to act as a liaison for foreign media, the government as a whole had no means to transmit information in English and that deficiency has been a hindrance at times.
Initially, the international public relations office was designed to actively publicize Japan's advanced technology and soft power.
However, after the twin disasters and nuclear accident, interview requests have flooded the office from not only foreign correspondents based in Japan, but directly from media organizations overseas.
The office was busy from morning until after midnight as the sole body that transmitted official statements made by the government.
While there have been reports in the foreign media that have praised the manner in which Japanese society has dealt with the damages and tried to encourage the Japanese people, there have also been many reports that are clearly based on wrong information.
For example, soon after the nuclear accident the German newspaper Die Welt had a front-page article with a headline saying "Tokyo faces fear of death." The article stated that 40 million people were threatened.
Even the Suddeutsche Zeitung, which is also considered a highly reputable newspaper, carried a report that said, "Many foreigners are leaving Tokyo. Even Japanese are preparing to leave."
Another article said, "Armed tanks of the Self-Defense Forces appeared (near the disaster-struck areas). The government has begun to prepare for panic among the public."
A high-ranking member of a search-and-rescue team from Germany that came to Japan was interviewed over the phone by a German TV station.
The first thing the member was asked was, "Are you alive?"
After the member replied, "Yes," the reporter asked, "But, I heard reports that half of the capital has been destroyed."
When the member said that was not true, the reporter continued, "I heard that water and food are unavailable in Tokyo."
An executive of a Japanese subsidiary of a German company said, "The German media is exaggerating," but added, "Since the Chernobyl accident, Germans have become very sensitive about nuclear accidents. Even though the amounts were minimal, the media filed daily reports about mushrooms that contained radioactive materials. The latest reports are based on that history."
The German Chamber of Commerce moved its headquarters to Osaka on March 12, the day after the earthquake. Executives of the chamber continue to work out of hotel rooms in Osaka.
On March 17, the German Embassy announced it was moving its operations to its consulates in Osaka and Kobe.
While Germany was the only major nation that moved its embassy outside of Tokyo, other nations have also filed reports that have contributed to the spread of concern abroad.
On March 15, a business channel for China Central Television broadcast a program about the earthquake.
The newscaster asked, "If the radiation detected in Tokyo is assumed to come from the Fukushima nuclear plant, how long before Tokyo residents have to evacuate?"
An expert on the program responded, "There will be a need to obey the instructions given by the local government about specific evacuation measures."
As the camera showed video of only those passers-by wearing face masks, a reporter, who also wore a mask, said, "Tokyo residents have all begun wearing masks from noon today. The reason is because the wind is blowing from the north. They are concerned about radioactive materials coming from the Fukushima plant."
The reporter added that many people had already moved to the Kansai region and shouted, "But, they do not have gasoline to leave by car. No one knows how 10 million citizens can leave by train."
In addition to responding to interviews with foreign media, Shikata has also posted numerous tweets in English on the social-networking website Twitter on a daily basis.
However, as the situation at Fukushima worsened, the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, were increasingly late in their responses. Distrust among the foreign media also intensified because of the bad handling of media relations by the central government and TEPCO.
The central government issued orders to residents living within a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima plant to evacuate and to those living between a 20- to 30-km radius to remain indoors.
In contrast, on March 17, the governments of the United States, Britain, South Korea and Mexico, among others, recommended that their citizens living within a 80-km radius evacuate the area. Narita Airport also witnessed a large increase in foreigners flying out of Japan.
A government official said, "Without the Prime Minister's Official Residence's international transmission function, coverage in foreign nations would likely have been even worse. However, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is supposed to be a specialized agency, was slow in posting English reports on its website. Japan is deficient in transmitting accurate information abroad."
Meanwhile, some in the private sector have begun transmitting reports about the situation in Japan in English.
For example, the entrepreneur Yoshito Hori has played a central role in starting "Project KIBOW" to provide relief and reconstruction assistance to those in the affected areas. His network of foreign acquaintances has enabled Hori to send out reports in English.
University experts have also continued posting information and data analysis in English concerning the nuclear accident.