Ensuring the safety of foreign visitors was the focus of a disaster preparedness drill in Tokyo's Asakusa district March 8 ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
The exercise was held at Sensoji temple, a popular tourist destination in Taito Ward, and adjacent areas.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster ravaged the northeastern Tohoku region, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead or missing.
Officials said that 250 or so foreign students of a Japanese language school and a business school took part in the drill.
It was held with foreign tourists in mind, and based on a scenario that an earthquake with an intensity of upper 6 on the Japanese scale of 7 had struck directly beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area.
At 10:30 a.m. when an alarm was sounded, the drill participants, including members of neighborhood associations and the Self-Defense Forces, crouched down together.
The foreign students played the role of travelers from overseas caught up in a disaster and not knowing what to do.
Working in four groups of five, they also took the role of interpreters to explain the severity of "injuries" and give directions to evacuate, mainly in English.
“We hope this drill proved useful in ensuring a smooth evacuation and that we can respond in languages other than English in the future,” said an official of the Asakusa tourist association.