This page is written for foreign nationals who live in Okinawa, and for their family members, coworkers, and neighbors. If you’re visiting on a trip, see our typhoon guide for visitors instead.

What you need differs depending on whether you’re a resident or a visitor. A visitor goes home in a few days. A resident may end up involved in going to a shelter, obtaining a Disaster Victim Certificate, and rebuilding daily life. That means there’s also a lot more you can do to prepare during ordinary times.

1. Set up a way to receive information in another language

During a typhoon or earthquake, TV, radio, and the disaster-prevention radio system are all in Japanese. Set up a way to get information in a language other than Japanese, in advance.

The Immigration Services Agency’s portal is organized into 12 chapters: entry and residence procedures, municipal procedures, employment and labor, childbirth and childcare, education, medical care, pensions and welfare, taxes, transportation, emergencies and disasters, housing, and rules for daily life. It covers daily life in general, not just disaster preparedness, so it’s worth bookmarking once.

2. Get to know “Easy Japanese”

Japanese municipalities have increasingly started using Easy Japanese (やさしい日本語) for foreign residents — Japanese that avoids difficult words and uses short sentences.

Because it’s sometimes used in disaster broadcasts and notices, getting to the point where “I can understand it if it’s in Easy Japanese” makes information much easier to receive.

The same goes for Japanese speakers. If you have foreign coworkers or neighbors, keep in mind to communicate in short, simple Japanese during an emergency. “Nigete kudasai” (run away) is easier to understand than “Hinan shite kudasai” (please evacuate).

3. Things worth registering for during ordinary times

Living in Okinawa, there are things worth registering for even if you can’t read Japanese.

If the registration process itself is in Japanese only, ask a coworker or neighbor to help you. This is a completely reasonable thing to ask for.

4. Check the evacuation site for where you live

Evacuation sites and shelters are different, and where you go changes depending on the type of disaster.

Ask at your municipal office for a hazard map. It’s a map, so you can find the location even if you can’t read Japanese. Whatever you can’t understand, you can ask about at the counter.

Also separately check the evacuation site for your workplace or your school.

5. Where to turn for help

Okinawa has consultation services for foreign residents. You can use them both before and after a disaster.

Okinawa International Exchange and Human Resource Development Foundation

Offers legal and living consultations.

  • Available regardless of your residency status
  • Languages supported: Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Nepali, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai, and Burmese
  • Apply via an inquiry form, phone, or Facebook chat
  • Legal consultations are free once per case, per person (up to 1 hour)
  • Phone: 098-942-9215 (3F, 3-4-1 Isa, Ginowan City)

Your municipal office

Municipalities also have their own consultation desks. Naha City’s Consultation Desk for Foreign Residents, for example, is at the counter on the first floor of the main city hall building, Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (closed weekends, public holidays, June 23, and December 29–January 3), phone 098-862-9955. It handles consultations on daily life matters including health, work, childcare, and taxes.

Whether a desk exists, and which languages it supports, differs by municipality. Check with your own municipality.

Note that these consultation desks cannot mediate disputes between individuals, or act on your behalf in private contracts (such as a mobile phone plan, a lease, or a credit card).

6. To coworkers and neighbors

If you have foreign coworkers or neighbors, there are a few things worth doing for them.

  • Whether work or school is closed for a typhoon often doesn’t reach someone if it’s only communicated through a Japanese-language phone tree. Check whether it actually got through (see the work and school article)
  • The sense of “when to go shopping” isn’t something someone from a country without typhoons would have. A simple “you should buy what you need today” goes a long way
  • When it’s time to evacuate, call out to them too. Making that judgment alone, with neither local knowledge nor the language, is extremely difficult

Without having experienced one, the scale and duration of an Okinawa typhoon is hard to imagine. “Someone who knows tells you” is the most reliable form of disaster preparedness there is.

What this article does not cover

Specific consultations about residency status or administrative procedures are not covered by this site — use the Immigration Services Agency’s portal or the consultation desks listed above. Check disaster and evacuation information via official up-to-date information, and follow the evacuation information issued by your municipality when deciding whether to evacuate.