Devastating floods that forced thousands of evacuations near Tokyo in September revealed shortcomings in disaster management when it comes to helping residents who do not speak Japanese.
Many were unaware of what they should do or where help could be found and resorted to calling their diplomatic missions for information.
The language barrier made the situation particularly difficult for non-Japanese in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, one of the areas that was hit hardest. Although the city is home to 4,000 foreigners, including one of the nation's biggest Japanese-Brazilian communities, many Brazilians said they could not understand the municipal government's announcements over loudspeakers because they were in Japanese.