When a major earthquake or typhoon hits, the few seconds of early warning your phone can give you are genuinely life-saving — but only if you set it up in advance and the alerts come in a language you understand. Japan has excellent disaster-warning infrastructure, and several apps deliver it in English. Install these five now, turn on their notifications, and you will get earthquake early warnings, evacuation orders, and weather alerts straight to your phone.
1. NHK World-Japan
Japan's public broadcaster runs a free English-language app and website covering breaking earthquake, tsunami, and severe-weather news. It is the most reliable source of clear, official disaster information in English, including evacuation guidance and live updates after a major event. If you install only one app, make it this one.
2. Safety tips
Produced for the Japan Tourism Agency, Safety tips sends push notifications for earthquake early warnings, tsunami warnings, severe weather, and evacuation advisories across all of Japan. It supports several languages including English, Chinese, and Korean, which makes it ideal for residents and travelers alike. It also explains what each warning means and what action to take.
3. NERV Disaster Prevention
Run by Gehirn, the NERV Disaster Prevention app is widely regarded as one of the fastest sources of earthquake early warnings and disaster alerts in Japan, pushing notifications the instant warnings are issued. It offers English support. Enable notifications so it can alert you the moment a warning goes out.
4. Yahoo! 防災速報
Yahoo! Japan's 防災速報 (Disaster Alert) app is one of the most popular disaster apps in the country. It covers earthquakes, tsunami, heavy rain, flooding, landslides, and evacuation information, and lets you set alerts for multiple locations — useful for keeping an eye on family elsewhere in Japan. The interface is primarily in Japanese, so pair it with a translation app if needed, but its coverage and speed make it worth having.
5. Yurekuru Call (ゆれくるコール)
Yurekuru Call specializes in one thing: earthquake early warnings. When the Japan Meteorological Agency detects an earthquake, the app can give you roughly 5 to 30 seconds of advance notice before strong shaking reaches you — enough time to drop, cover, and hold on, or to step away from a window. Those seconds matter.
Set it up properly
Installing the apps is only half the job. To get the full benefit:
- Enable notifications for every app — and allow critical or emergency alerts to override silent mode and Do Not Disturb where the app offers it.
- Set your home location (and any others you care about) so alerts are relevant.
- Keep your phone charged. An alert is useless on a dead phone — see our power outage guide for keeping devices alive in a blackout.
Protect your phone
Your phone is your alert system, your map, and your way to message family. A waterproof case keeps it working through a typhoon, flood, or sweaty evacuation.
Find waterproof phone cases on Amazon →