The Tokyo Metropolitan Fire Department phone lines were down due to an equipment malfunction for nine minutes between 11:23 a.m. and 11:32 a.m. in all 23 wards on Wednesday.
Department officials told a news conference following the incident that a system malfunction of unknown origin occurred at the command center in Chiyoda Ward, NTV reported Thursday.
Within the nine-minute period, there were 15 emergency calls which could not get through, and a number of people visited a fire station in Taito Ward to inquire about the system glitch.
Police and the fire department said that during the nine minutes, there were no fires or accidents requiring emergency medical services.
Fire department officials said that on Feb 25, the entire phone system was replaced for the first time in 12 years.
© Japan Today
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Yubaru
Please read the article before making unfounded and inaccurate statements like this that mislead people.
Quite so! Kind of hard to know if ambulance calls got missed out though, but it would be safe to expect that in a true emergency situation the person trying to dial 119 would have dialed 110 when they realized that 119 was not working.
cloa513
110 is for police. They didn't address whether any ambulance calls missed out.
Wc626
But, those crimes are petty. Not many serious felonies compared o say NY or LA. IMO, Tokyo is safe. I never look over my shoulder when I'm out & about.
Mar044
I wonder if Japan gets flasr calls , like here in the west stupid people calling because they didn't get a pizza order right so on.
harvey pekar
According to the National Police Agency in 2008, every two and half minutes a crime is committed on the streets of Tokyo.
So, that's about 3-4 people who needed help and no one picked up on the other end.
Kaerimashita
I called 119 when i realised that the emergency number wasn't working....
Jellois
That's because they didn't get any phone calls....