If you encounter a natural disaster in Japan, you can connect to wifi using SSID “00000JAPAN”

Great news: When large-scale natural disaster happens in Japan, within 72 hours, unified SSID "00000JAPAN" will be launched, and regardless of which carrier you are using, and regardless of where you are in Japan, you can use this Wireless Internet for free.




ASCII: 大規模災害時には無料のSSID“00000JAPAN”に接続！
Internet Watch: 災害時に無料で使える公衆無線LAN「00000JAPAN」を統一SSIDとして提供
Wireless Wire News: 大規模災害時にはWi-Fiで「00000JAPAN」に接続 －無線LANビジネス推進連絡会がガイドラインを公表
無線 LAN ビジネス推進連絡会: 大規模災害発生時における 公衆無線 LAN の無料開放 に関する ガイドライン(pdf)

Related: NTT-BP launched Android/iPhone apps called "Japan Connected-free wifi" which enables users to connect easily to public wifi networks at airports, rail stations, and municipalities all over Japan. Finding public wifi was the biggest complaint travelers had in Japan, and this app was created to tackle this problem.




Project311- Visualization of the Evacuation Process During the Tsunami

"Visualization of the Evacuation Process During the Tsunami" project by "Team Masters & Forever 22" started from a simple question- Why were evacuation during the tsunami so slow? In order to get hints to save lives in future disasters, they analyzed how people moved fleeing from tsunami in the coastal areas.

Video (Japanese audio, English subtitled)


They used ZENRIN Datacom's data to see the changes in population density per 250m2 and visualized them on Google Maps, in conjunction with shelter data and water level data.

They picked the town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture as a model case for 4 reasons:
1) center of the town is all gone due to tsunami
2) lost 10% of the population due to tsunami
3) was surrounded by mountain, and should have been able to evacuate
4) the researcher had 3 relative families there, and one is still missing due to tsunami, so she has talked with the citizens and knows the actual situation there before and after the tsunami.

(I think knowing the reality is very important when analyzing the data. Not just looking at the data only, but going back and forth between data and the real world is very important in analyzing data.)

This is the map of Otsuchi, red line shows where the tsunami came. The area circled with yellow line is the area that are the busy area during the daytime, with municipal buildings, hospitals etc, and note these are all built alongside the river. The team mapped hourly population density change and created video out of those data.

The earthquake happened at 2:46 p.m. The Meteorological Agency issued an urgent report that the tsunami is estimated at 3m in Iwate. The levees in Otsuchi are 6.4m tall, so many people figured that they wouldn't have to evacuate, and there even were people who took cameras to the top of the levees to watch the ocean.

30 minutes after the quake, the Meteorological Agency issued its first correction of the initial estimate of tsunami size, but at this point the first wave of tsunami had already reached the town. At Otsuchi, in merely 30 minutes, the waves surmounted the levees and entered the town, influencing citizens' destiny.

This picture is from around 4 p.m. Most people have already evacuated from the coast.

Since Otsuchi is a small town, it may seem that everyone should be able to reach higher and safer places within 10 minutes. However, as you can see from this data- which is the route an actual tsunami victim took to evacuate, movement of people are much more complicated.

She says it would be useful for preventing similar disaster in the future, if we could get a more detailed data of the movements of people in these decisive 30 minutes.

After the tsunami's arrival people do not move much, but can see a slow decrease of people. Since Zenrin's data is based on the GPS information of cell phones, and there were power outages in the town, it is likely that cell phones ran out of battery and lost their GPS connection.

Also, there are issues about the data.

The image on left shows population distribution from 2 to 3 a.m. on the day after the quake, and on the right, from 3 to 4 a.m.

Zenrin's data had 190 people in several places in the image on the left, and those people disappeared in the image on the right. Also, we see numbers like 92. This number probably comes from the calculation of 29 minute long access, by multiplying 29/60 by 190.... representing the proportion of people with reception over time. In larger cities, those calculations might be effective, but in smaller towns like Otsuchi, we should use raw data to get accurate movement of people.

However, we are able to learn two important things from this data.

1) Up until 12 hours after the tsunami, we had multiple cell phone signals even from flooded area
2) We can track individual cell phones, on how many hours and minutes they lasted

So we can propose several useful ways of using cell phones during disaster from this data.

Proposal 1) Create power-saving mode for cell phones
If users set their cell phones to power-saving mode, it can make the battery last up to 3 days. This mode should stop unnecessary functions and applications, and allows only GPS, mail, and phone calls to operate. Also, slow down the GPS transmissions to about once in 5 minutes. Cell phones lose battery power much quicker when reception is bad. But even when there is no reception at all, like during the disaster, we can still trace the owner's whereabouts for 3 days with the GPS. If we could relay personal 
information like that to firefighters or the Self-Defense Force or relatives, it would help the search effort.

Proposal 2) Create cell phone relay stations that can be transported by helicopter
This would enable us to send evacuation and rescue information via e-mail to people in need.

Proposal 3) Make an exception to Privacy protection law during disaster
In order to make those work, we would have to have exception to privacy protection law to rescue disaster victims.

Comment from Professor Murai:

The thing about 30 minutes is interesting. The standard life for cell phone relay station batteries is 30 minutes, too, so there might be connection. They will be changing the battery life of relay stations to 24 hours, so that might affect it.
Comment from Suzuki-san:

Un reality, the cell phone batteries held up. But even in cases where there were generators and cell phone batteries available, sometimes the relay station had been swept away or the power of relay stations went down. Supposedly the cell phone relay station batteries lasted for about 24 hours. After that, probably also due to congestion, communication became impossible. Cell phone's power saving more is important, but ways to prolong relay stations are even more important.

This team also presented at the poster session with their analysis of tendency of roads that tends to get traffic congestion and roads that tends to isolate victims by natural disaster.



Videos to experience Japan

I'd like to introduce several awesome videos about Japan.

Keio Global | Shaping History, Shaping Tomorrow

"Follow one international student's breathtaking journey through the heart of Tokyo and experience the sights and sounds of Keio University. Our student navigates both ancient and advanced, sipping tea in centuries-old ceremony one moment and break-dancing alongside Keio students to Japanese hip hop the next. After perfecting controlled brushstrokes at the Japanese calligraphy club, he tackles a jostling bout of sumo with students and joins experiments in state-of-the-art robotics research at a Keio laboratory. With its rich history and modern outlook, Keio University offers a rewarding and exciting lifestyle to international students while providing a first-class education over an extensive range of disciplines, including a number of programs taught entirely in English."
You can read the production interviews here.

Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan


Series of videos by augment5.


Kusatsu Oct 26 , 2011 from augment5 Inc. on Vimeo.


KYOTO Nov 4-5 , 2011 from augment5 Inc. on Vimeo.


Mino Aug 1,2012 from augment5 Inc. on Vimeo.


ENOSHIMA Oct 16 , 2011 from augment5 Inc. on Vimeo.



"Wake up Japan!" says Dave McLure

Global Innovation Conference was held in Osaka which I didn't go, but I thought I'd share its keynote video.

The speaker was Dave McLure, and he told the Japanese people to wake up, it's no longer the time for the Japanese to be sitting in the comfort zone, because this country is on fire. He tells people to become the nail that sticks out, move fast and break things, and don't be afraid to fail, because key factor to innovation is creativity, failure and iteration.

There is a famous saying in Japanese "七転び八起き" which means even if you fall 7 times, get up 8 times and move forward. But at the same time, the Japanese wants to do things well and organized, the citizens does not like failure, it's a country that fears shame.

"Failure is necessary, it is a process, not a problem." says Dave, and urges Osaka's mayor Hashimoto to dance without practicing, show everyone his failure in public, and urge the citizens to make failures- make them feel they are allowed to fail, practice, and become successful taking that failure as a process.



Project311- Project Hayano



Slides used at the presentation is as following:










2) Data compiled by JAMSTEC and mashup movie with ZENRIN data
4) The JAEA calculations.


  6) Automobile drive map by HONDA (default off)


1) Understanding ZENRIN's data







2) Understanding SPEEDI's data






Project Hayano's documentation can be seen here [ja]:




We learned so much from professor Hayano through watching his projects.






Project311- Comments from Professor Murai

One of the commentators for Project311 workshop was professor Jun Murai from Keio University, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies.

He is called the "father of Japan's Internet", the founder of JUNET and president of WIDE Project. He also served in the past as the president (currently board of trustees member) of Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC), Advisory Member of Information Security Policy Council, Cabinet Secretariat Information Security Center, Cabinet Secretariat of Japan and Advisory Member of IT Strategy Headquarters at Cabinet Secretariat of Japan.

Professor Murai is currently tackling Open Government in Japan, he is the advisor of the Japanese government's "Open Data Promotion Consortium [ja]".


You can see Professor Murai's comment video here, audio is in Japanese, you can turn on English subtitle, and machine translation on other languages:

"This was an awesome project. The point is, how can we leverage this learning to the future." says Prof. Murai. "As you heard during Mr. Suzuki's comments, and as was mentioned in many of the presentations, I'd like to stress what we're doing here can save lives on the grounds in the future. It is important to think about how we link the people on the grounds and the information that was analyzed here."

"The presentations were great- lots of diversity, and this whole day was a great experience for me. I would like to thank and express my respect to the organizers for making this happen, all the data providers that released such data, and participants who did the analysis of those data. What we need to do now, is to connect this with the people on the grounds."

"What we learned today is that the role of public sectors, private sectors and individuals surrounding data is important. Individuals have shown great strength after the disaster, both good and bad. In today's workshop it was all about how to prepare for future disasters, but in a broader terms, how can we build a new global society where the public sectors, private sectors and individuals interacts surrounding data. We experienced a lot of experience on that during the disaster, and we were able to have a precious experience of analyzing and sharing that today. We recognized the importance of properly understanding the data and analyzing data, and then we need to move from theory to action."

"The data used today had time-limited conditions and it's been made available to you because you're academics. Personal info has been made available because of its potential to save lives. Otherwise you won't be able to keep using it. I think the most important thing is to work on making a society in which data is more available. There were many parties who were hesitant about releasing data and didn't provide them. There's a lot of data that we really could have utilized. We need to make an environment where we can use data properly. A society where those who have data can provide it without hesitation. We need to create a system, environment and society that allows to do this.  If we can realize such society, people like you can continue and further develop your present research and connect it to concrete actions that will save human lives. All that depends on how data would be available to the public and private sectors and the individual. If we can realize that, we can make this country a new, data-driven advanced nation. Japan learned a lot from last year's disaster, and with such experience we can make contributions to the whole world. We should take action toward creating such an environment. To make productive use of all this work and research you did today, I want to help create a society where data can be used effectively and safely. What you all have done here today is extremely useful evidence of how people can utilize such open data. I would like to ask all of you here to help. It was a wonderful event today. Thank you everyone."


Project311- Comments from Mr. Suzuki from Kesennuma

One of the commentators for Project311 workshop was Mr. Hidemitsu Suzuki from Kesennuma City. He was working at city of Kesennuma Crisis Management division, so when the earthquake happened  he was in charge of coping with it. I visited Kesennuma last year and wrote a post about it here. You can see the video of Kesennuma right after the crisis here. The city was hit by earthquake, tsunami and was caught on fire.

You are able to watch his comments in English with the subtitle on this video.

After hearing all the presentations, he shows a video clip of tsunami attacking his city. He says he was impressed by the analysis, he thinks it is helpful to cope with future disasters.

While coping with the crisis, he felt the importance of information provided by government agencies, but in reality the government lacked people who can work on it. At the workshop, he felt encouraged by hearing people talk about the possibility of citizens to help the government publish data.

In Kesennuma, the power outage took two months to fix. It took three months to fully restore the water supply. Missing persons were announced with paper notices in the city hall lobby. That is reality. It wasn't digital.

Traffic jam happened, and the roads were stuck in all directions. Not only were people trying to escape to hills, some were trying to get back to the dangerous city worrying about their families. (According to the survey by the Ministry Internal Affairs and Communications, 27% of the people who got on the cars replied they got on the car in hope to rescue their families.) People were trying to move in all directions and the roads were stuck everywhere. If these people were able to get the information about their families' safety, maybe they wouldn't have gotten back to the city.

There were power outages. Maybe, researches presented in the workshop may not function with power outages. We should be prepared for that, too.

How should people respond to a tweet that simply reads "Help me"? Should you go look for that person?

Here is an example. The central public hall of Kesennuma was hit by tsunami, and citizens who evacuated there were surrounded by fire. There was a mother getting ready to suffocate her own child so that the child wouldn't burn to death. Fortunately they were rescued, thanks to the power of social media. The principal of a kindergarten sent an email via her mobile phone to her son in London. "I'm in the public hall, surrounded by fire. I may not make it, but I will do my best." He asked to spread that information on Twitter and Tokyo's vice governor Naoki Inose saw it. The next day, Inose sent helicopters and rescue units from Tokyo's fire department and rescued them.  This example demonstrated the potential of social media during disaster.

Mr. Suzuki closed his comments hoping that the researchers here will be "intellectuals with wilderness who is able to cope with issues even with power outages".



Let me add some more details about the example described above. It is actually called "the miracle of Kesennuma".

Naoko Utsumi, principal of a school for disabled children was surrounded by tsunami water and fire. She writes an email to her son, Naohito, who live in London: "I'm in the public hall, surrounded by fire. I may not make it, but I will do my best." Her mobile phone was almost out of battery.

Naohito tried to call the fire department but the call didn't get through, so he tweeted:
Please retweet: My mother is the principal of a school for disabled children and she is left on the 3rd floor of the central public hall of Kesennuma City, Miyagi prefecture with dozens of children. The surroundings and the lower floor of the building is drained in water due to tsunami and there is no way to get close to them from the ground. If there is any way to get close to them from the sky, please help at least the children there."
Information spread, and Shuichi Suzuki who lives in Tokyo tweeted it to Naoki Inose, vice governor of Tokyo. He of course did not know Inose in person.

Inose replied "I printed this out and gave it to the executives of Tokyo Disaster Control Center."

The fire department in Kesennuma itself was hit by the disaster and there was no request from the local fire department asking for help. "There never was a case like this, but I want you to go" told Inose, to the manager of Disaster Center. "During the crisis, it is important to clear up the flow of information, to connect the information between the people on the grounds and the people who needs those information. In a critical situation, leaders should tell the team that they will take responsibility and push people to take action." says Inose.

The next morning helicopter arrived in to the city hall. "Great news! The children are saved!" tweeted Inose.

Due to a single tweet from London, the lives of 446 people were saved- including an elderly over 90 years old, newly born baby and an expecting mother (in 10 days), and many children.

Why did this happen? There were lots of tweets, Twitter was flood of information, and Inose gets lots of replies- why was he able to distinguish this tweet? There were lots of false tweets like this. Why did this tweet get in to Inose's eyes, why did he trust it and why was he able to act upon it?

The point, according to Inose was that the tweet was very logical, calm and trustworthy. It had details, it had 5W1H, the sentence was structured well which made him believe that it was true.

In fact, "It took me 1 hour to write that 140 characters. One single sentence can become facts or lies" recalls Naohito.

It is also important to use tools in everyday life, since you just can't suddenly start using tools you're not used to when disaster hits. "I think they sent me this tweet because they knew I was using Twitter regularly" says Inose. If he wasn't using it regularly, there is no way people can expect Inose would take action based on a Tweet.

The other important thing is to write trustworthy posts regularly. When determining whether a tweet is true or false, people will read other tweets by that person, to determine the trustworthiness. Social media is not just about single post- it is accumulation of your posts, trustworthiness and behaviour.

Several articles on miracle in Kesennuma.
NHK Report: "Information lifeline that saved people's lives" [ja]
NikkeiBP: "Miracle in Kesennuma, information source was from London" [ja]
"What you should prioritize during crisis" [ja]
Naoki Inose Blog: "Kesennuma City Hall Twitter rescue- principal of the school visits" [ja]
"Interview with Naoki Inose about the miracle in Kesennuma" [ja]
Video of the interview [ja]
