The automatic response when hearing that a natural disaster has struck is to call loved ones in the area to see if they are all right.
So it was only natural that when a series of large earthquakes hit the Chuetsu region of Niigata Prefecture on Saturday night, telephone lines connecting the area with the rest of the country were flooded with calls, making it difficult for them to get through.
To ease callers' frustration, NTT East Corp. set up a voice mail service to help people in the quake-hit areas get in touch with those elsewhere, and vice versa.