Osaka to launch disaster info service for foreign tourists before Expo

If there is ANY benefit at all to these international events it's that these large municipalities are FINALLY getting their heads outta their butts with regards to information services.

I always thought it would be a no brainer in a country prone to so many natural disasters that information would be available, intelligible information that is, for tourists.

Why don’t they have one already? It’s not as if these will be the first foreigners to visit Osaka.

better late than never...

Meanwhile, they are still talking about how "unfair" it is that tourism -- especially foreign -- dropped dramatically after the big typhoon hit, and how it was admitted they did not have the ability to communicate well enough to foreign visitors who may be trapped and/or in trouble... and have they done anything? Nope. Takes getting an international event for Japan to do anything on the matter besides form highly-paid panels to discuss it.

I still remember getting pamphlets from the ward office when I first moved in almost 10 years ago, about emergency services, location of evacuation areas etc (it was a coastal area with tsunami risk), and it was all in tiny print Japanese that hadn't been updated in years. I thought "what do the people do who come here not reading any Japanese?"

Even now, foreigner friends who come to visit can't get info on weather and train delays etc. thanks to scant wifi in public places and very little info in other languages.

So they admit a big death disaster will happen?

How long will smartphones last after the power goes off?