September 2014
From Group Interviews with Foreign Residents from Four Countries
Takanobu Tanaka
“How to provide disaster information accurately to foreign nationals residing in Japan when a major disaster hits” is an issue repeatedly pointed out in the discussion of information delivery at a time of disaster. A telephone survey conducted by the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute after the Great East Japan Earthquake also highlighted that some foreign nationals experienced “information vacuum” where they were not able to access necessary information and/or were swayed by incorrect information.
With the purpose of seeking improvements on disaster information provision to foreign residents, the Institute conducted group interviews with foreign nationals living in Japan to find out their information needs. We surveyed Chinese, Korean, Japanese-Brazilian, and Filipino residents (50 persons in total) in the Tokyo metropolitan area. With the assumption that a major earthquake occurs directly beneath the Tokyo area and that they suffer from it, we asked them about media use, information behavior, and request for the media. As a result, it is revealed there is a shared concern that they cannot visualize specific evacuation behaviors at an initial stage right after the earthquake, saying “I have no idea what to do” or “I don’t know where the evacuation center is.” It is also revealed foreign nationals are more likely to consider leaving the afflicted area, such as going back to their home countries or moving to other areas, than the Japanese are. Their responses included “I need to find out how to leave Japan” and “I will seek ways to move to other areas in Japan to find a job,” which suggests there are higher needs for transportation information than for information on other lifelines.
Meanwhile, as smart-phone ownership has dramatically soared in recent years, many foreign residents now use various information sources, not only from Japan but also from overseas media outlets and from their family and friends in their home countries. As a future task it will be necessary to take into account the multimedia environment when discussing how to provide disaster information to foreign nationals.