Japan begins trials for disaster info service for foreign tourists

I imagine it would be something along the lines of

"Dear gaikokujins,

RUN!!

Thank you,

Kinki Bureau of Telecommunications

Obviously in a severe situation of phones and power all out, there is no easy solution to this. Every person for themselves. However in 2011 in Tokyo at least, there was some emergency information broadcast on TV in English and maybe other languages too (can't recall which). Battery operated radio tuned to AFN channel may be the most reliable source in English in a complete disaster scenario.

That's the problem right there. If the cell towers go down, us foreigners will be in deep Kim Chee.

How will 16 million tourists, here for a week or two know about this ap? And like @Kuri said, many communication systems will be down. Kobe was cut off for 3 days when the great Hanshin earthquake hit.

Hopefully, native speakers of each language have been consulted for the translations and they are not Googlish or gibberish.

In a large earthquake cell phone towers become damaged and phone lines topple,not to mention that it is everyone for themselves...