A new smartphone application produced by a Japanese insurance company can help guide people to safety in three foreign languages during natural disasters in Japan, company officials said Saturday.
The app by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. will be available for free download in English, Chinese and Korean late this month, aimed at tourists and exchange students from overseas.
The Japanese version of the app, called "Sumaho Saigaiji Nabi," has amassed more than 500,000 downloads since its launch in 2012.
The multilingual version will have the same functions as the original, which provides maps marking nearby evacuation centers that can be accessed even when smartphones are cut off from the Internet.
Users can also get directions to the centers by pointing their smartphones' cameras at buildings around them for the application to recognize.
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance has reached agreements with seven local authorities across Japan to publicize evacuation centers' locations through the Japanese version of the app. The company now plans to get more regional authorities and universities on board to encourage use of the multilingual version.
Through an agreement with the operator of Narita airport near Tokyo, the company plans to integrate the app's functions with those of an app called "Tabimori," which provides information about airports for foreign visitors.
