Earthquake preparedness in Tokyo for Americans

You will feel earthquakes in Tokyo, probably within your first few weeks. Most are a rattle and a shrug. The goal is to be ready for the one that isn't.

The short version

Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA) sends Earthquake Early Warnings that can buy you a few seconds before strong shaking arrives [1]. Install the free Safety tips app to get them in English [2].
Tokyo's own Disaster Preparedness Tokyo app and the Tokyo Bousai guidebook cover what to do, in English [3][4].
Find your neighborhood's temporary evacuation area and evacuation center before you need them [4].
Ask when your building was built. Buildings that started construction on or after June 1, 1981 were designed to Japan's "new earthquake resistance standard" [5].
Keep at least three days of water, food and medicine at home; Tokyo suggests a week for people who need extra help [4].

How Japan warns you

Back home, most of us get earthquake alerts only if we live on the West Coast and have ShakeAlert turned on. In Japan, warnings are part of daily life, and your phone will scream at you.

Earthquake Early Warning (kinkyu jishin sokuho)

JMA's system reads the first, faster waves near the epicenter and announces the estimated intensity and expected arrival time of the strong shaking [1]. That warning is what slows trains and stops elevators. You may get only seconds, or none if you're close to the epicenter, so the point is to act on reflex: drop, cover and hold on.

The shindo scale

Japanese news reports shaking in shindo (seismic intensity), not just magnitude. The JMA scale has 10 levels from 0 to 7, with 5 and 6 each split into "lower" and "upper" [1]. Shindo describes how hard the ground shook where you are, so one quake can be a 5-upper in one ward and a 3 across town.

Alert	What it means	What to do
Earthquake Early Warning	Strong shaking is coming in seconds [1]	Get under a sturdy table, away from windows
Tsunami Warning or Advisory	Issued by coastal region, usually within about two to three minutes [1]	Move to high ground or a tall, sturdy building if you're near the water
Nankai Trough Earthquake Extra Information	Chance of a big quake judged relatively higher [1]	Check your kit; it does not mean a quake will hit
J-Alert (civil protection)	Government emergency broadcast	Follow the on-screen instructions

In August 2024 JMA issued its first-ever Nankai Trough "megaquake advisory." JMA itself stresses that a warning of elevated risk "does not necessarily mean that one will actually strike" [1]. Treat it like a hurricane watch, not a hurricane warning.

The apps to install on day one

Safety tips. Free, built under the supervision of the Japan Tourism Agency. It pushes Earthquake Early Warnings, tsunami, volcano, weather, heat illness, civil protection and evacuation alerts for up to five locations, in 15 languages including English [2]. The State Department's Japan page recommends it, along with the NHK World app [6].
Disaster Preparedness Tokyo app (Tokyo's official disaster app). It runs in English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and "easy Japanese." Since March 2025 it has a mode for people stranded away from home that shows nearby temporary stay facilities and train status, though it only switches on during a disaster [3].
Your ward's alerts. Most of Tokyo's 23 wards send email or app alerts. Sign up when you register your address at the ward office.

Your cell phone carrier also sends area mail alerts by default. Leave them on, even though the first 3 a.m. buzz will make you jump out of your skin.

Where to go: evacuation sites in Tokyo

Tokyo's English guidebook uses four terms, and it helps to know which is which [4]:

Type	What it is
Temporary evacuation area	A nearby spot where neighbors gather to check conditions before moving on
Evacuation area	A large park or open square you can reach right away to escape fire or danger
Evacuation center	Usually a public school gym; shelters people whose homes collapsed or burned
Welfare evacuation shelter	An evacuation center with medical and nursing care

Your ward office publishes a hazard map and a list of designated sites, and signs on the street point to them. Walk the route once with your family. If you have kids in school, ask how the school hands children over after a big quake.

The big risk after a Tokyo quake isn't only collapse. It's fire spreading through dense wooden neighborhoods and millions of commuters stuck far from home. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's worst-case estimate for a major quake under the city includes up to about 6,100 deaths, about 194,000 buildings destroyed or burned, and 4.53 million stranded people [7]. That's why the city tells commuters not to rush home on foot, but to stay put at work or head to a temporary stay facility until it's safe to move [3].

Your building: why 1981 matters

Japan revised its Building Standards Act on June 1, 1981, creating the "new earthquake resistance standard" (shin-taishin). Buildings that started construction on or after that date are designed for large quakes as well as medium ones, and the rules for walls and seismic force in wooden buildings were tightened [5].

When you're apartment-hunting, look for the construction year (chiku-nen) on the listing:

Construction started after June 1981: built to the new standard. Remember a listing shows the completion date, so a building finished in 1982 may have been permitted under the old rules. Ask.
Before 1981: not automatically unsafe, since many have been retrofitted, but ask whether the building passed a seismic assessment (taishin shindan).
Newer high-rises often use base isolation or damping systems. They sway a lot on upper floors, so bolt down bookshelves anyway.

Inside your apartment, the cheap fixes matter most: tension poles or L-brackets on tall furniture, film on glass, no heavy stuff above your bed, and shoes by the bed for broken glass.

Your home kit

Tokyo's guidebook recommends at least three days of emergency supplies and medicine, and a week for people who need extra help [4]. The city's own stockpile site has a household calculator in English that tells you what and how much to buy [8]. A practical starting list:

Bottled water for everyone, plus extra for pets
Food that doesn't need cooking, and a portable gas stove with spare canisters
A flashlight or headlamp, a battery radio, and a power bank
Prescription medicine, plus a copy of your prescriptions
Emergency toilet bags (water and sewage can fail long after the shaking stops)
Cash in small bills, since card readers and ATMs go down
Copies of your passport, residence card and insurance card
A helmet or hard hat and work gloves for each adult

Japanese homes stock up on a "rolling" basis: eat the oldest supplies and buy replacements, so nothing expires. Think of it as a Costco run that never ends.

The American angle

Enroll in STEP. The US Embassy uses the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to send alerts and to account for citizens after a disaster.
Know the embassy number. The US Embassy in Tokyo is at 1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, and its main and after-hours emergency number is +81-3-3224-5000 [6]. Police are 110; fire and ambulance are 119 [6].
Set a family plan. Phone networks jam after a big quake. Japan's Disaster Emergency Message Dial (171) lets you record a voice message others can retrieve; it opens for practice on the 1st and 15th of each month [4]. Agree on one out-of-state contact back home everyone can text.
Travel advisory. When we checked travel.state.gov on November 6, 2026, Japan was at Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions, reissued after periodic review without changes; the page showed no issue date [6].

Swap tips on helmets, kits and which buildings held up in our community group for Americans in Japan. Long-timers love to tell you about March 11, 2011.

Earthquakes in Tokyo: the alerts, apps and home kit Americans need