How to read Japan's evacuation signs: the ○/× marks and the green pictograms
The signs are everywhere; most visitors walk past them. Four questions from the deck, with the official sources.
🪧 After the quake, you reach the park an evacuation sign pointed to. On the sign, a row of small square symbols — and under the wave labeled 津波 Tsunami there is an ×.
What is that × under the wave telling you?
✅ The right move: This site is NOT for tsunami — if a tsunami threatens, keep going to higher ground
Why: An evacuation site is designated per disaster, and the row of symbols shows which ones: flood, debris flow, tsunami and storm surge, landslide, large fire. Tsunami and storm surge share one wave symbol, so a sign often shows two waves side by side — read the label on each box. A ○ under a symbol means the site handles that disaster; an × means it does not — a riverside park can be the right place in a big fire and the wrong place in a flood or tsunami. The symbols were standardized nationwide in 2016, so they read the same in every town. Glance at them as you arrive: in a tsunami what counts is height, and the place to be is one marked for the wave — or simply higher ground.
🟩 Fires have broken out after the quake and an officer waves you off the block. Two green signs point different ways: a person running toward a circle, and a person inside a building.
Which sign do you follow right now?
✅ The right move: The running figure — an emergency evacuation area, open ground where you go while the danger is live
Why: Two different signs with two different jobs. The running figure marks an emergency evacuation area: open ground where you go to survive the danger of the moment — a spreading fire, a collapsing block. The building figure marks an evacuation shelter: a school or community center where people live for a while after their homes are lost. The shelter is not necessarily open or away from the hazard, so while the danger is live you follow the running figure; the building sign matters later, if you cannot go back to where you were staying. Travelers can use both — and in Tokyo, people stranded away from home also have temporary shelters of their own.
Source (summarized): Disaster Preparedness Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Government)
🏫 After a major earthquake, signs point to a 'Designated Evacuation Shelter' at a nearby school.
What is a Designated Evacuation Shelter?
✅ The right move: A facility like a school or community center, run by the local government, where people stay until the danger passes
Why: Designated Evacuation Shelters are public facilities — often schools and community centers — operated by local governments for people whose safety is threatened by a disaster. Visitors can seek help there too; follow the staff's guidance. In Tokyo, people stranded away from home also have temporary shelters of their own.
Source (summarized): Safety tips for travelers (Japan Tourism Agency / JNTO)
🌅 You're strolling along a seaside promenade. The ground begins to sway — gently, but it goes on for a strangely long time.
The shaking was weak. What should you do?
✅ The right move: Start evacuating to higher ground immediately — long shaking near the coast is a sign of a tsunami
Why: Official guidance is explicit: when there is a strong — or weak but long-lasting — earthquake near the coast, start evacuating. A slow, long swaying can mean a large, distant earthquake capable of generating a tsunami. Don't wait for the official warning to begin moving.
Source (summarized): Safety tips for travelers (Japan Tourism Agency / JNTO)
Carry this with you
One question a day on earthquake safety in Japan, with show-and-point emergency cards and an offline guide. Five languages, all free.
Get Jishin Sensei on the App Store (free)