Tourists and residents in Japan who don't speak Japanese no longer need to be concerned about missing out on earthquake and tsunami alerts.
Thanks to a new feature added on Feb. 1 to an app offered by NHK World, an English news channel provided by the public broadcaster, travelers or residents who don't speak Japanese will be able to receive emergency warnings on their smartphones in English.
They will have the choice of turning on notifications for earthquake and tsunami warnings as well as breaking news alerts. The breaking news alerts will include J-Alert warnings and updates on weather-related incidents, such as volcanic eruptions and typhoons.
English-only at the moment, Chinese is in the works.
I've had this installed on my iPad for a while and it works well. I installed the app on my iPhone for Apple Watch notifications. Let's see how it works.