The Tokyo Metropolitan and Kanagawa Prefectural governments are each working separately to set up a network of multilingual volunteers to help foreign residents if disaster strikes.

The metropolitan government established its volunteer registration system last year, but has taken few steps to organize the 630 participants. It will hold a series of lectures on disaster management for the volunteers beginning Dec. 16. Further meetings are scheduled on Dec. 18 and Jan. 7, 20 and 28, with additional ones possible depending on participant response, metro officials said.

The metro government also organized the volunteers into 45 groups according to where they live, and set up a telephone network to distribute messages from authorities. The metro government will improve the phone system in view of the volunteers' languages and experience, said Masanori Iritani, a metropolitan official in charge of foreign resident community affairs in Tokyo.

The metro government plans to accept applications and increase the number of volunteers to about 1,000 next summer. A similar network is being established in Kanagawa Prefecture.