Alerts in Japanese warning about deadly Typhoon Hagibis left many foreign nationals confused as to whether they needed to evacuate, underscoring a need for multilingual services.
When Hagibis made landfall on Oct. 12, Nhu Hoang, a 27-year-old Vietnamese visiting Sendai, panicked as she could not understand a Japanese phrase meaning "evacuation advisory" in an emergency email issued by the local government.
"English would be very useful" at times like this, said Hoang, who lives in Tokyo.