[JMA] Publication of the Report of the Working Group on the Use of the Earthquake Early Warning System under the Study Group on the Evaluation and Improvement of the Earthquake Early Warning System

On 21 April 2023, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published a report of the Working Group on the Use of the Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) under the Study Group on the Evaluation and Improvement of the EEWS.

The report summarises the results of studies conducted by the Working Group on the EEWS under the jurisdiction of the JMA, which has met twice since 27 February 2023. The purpose of the Working Group is to review the technical improvements and utilization of the EEWS since it was first made available to the public in October 2007 and to determine the future of its utilization.

The table of contents of the report is as follows:

1. Introduction --- 4
2. Technical improvements of the EEWS --- 6
 2.1 Specifics of technical improvements to the EEWS --- 6
 2.2 Issues in technical improvements of the EEWS --- 10
3. Use of the current EER systems ---11
 3.1 Current status of the use of the EEWS --- 11
 3.2 Issues on the use of the current EEWS ---12
4. Future direction of the EEWS --- 14
 4.1 The future of the EEWS --- 14
 4.2 Challenges in the future and their solutions --- 15
5. Summary --- 17
6. Conclusion --- 19

With regard to persons with disabilities, the section "3.2 Issues on the use of the current EEWS" recognizes "issues concerning universal design, including how to quickly convey the content of earthquake early warning messages to visually impaired persons using only sound, how to convey information to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons without using sound, and how to convey information in multiple languages to non-native speakers of Japanese" and gives examples of solutions, such as voice reading on smartphones and camera flash functions.

For more information, please visit: https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/press/2304/21a/20230421_eew_rikatsuyou.html

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