A local tourism association in northeastern Japan held a training session Saturday to prepare some foreign residents in the city to become leaders who can help others from overseas when natural disasters hit the area.

The Sendai Tourism, Convention and International Association hopes foreign residents with good Japanese language skills will convey information, such as evacuation instructions from government entities, to those who do not understand Japanese well.

A total of 25 Sendai residents with roots in over 15 countries including China, South Korea, and Vietnam took part in Saturday's session, listening to a lecture by Shunwai Tan, a disaster management leader from Soja, Okayama Prefecture in western Japan.

Tan, a 46-year-old man from Brazil, shared his experience of translating evacuation information into multiple languages and spreading it through social media when heavy rains and flooding devastated western Japan in 2018.

Shunwai Tan, a disaster management leader, gives a lecture, sharing his experience of translating evacuation information into multiple languages and spreading it through social media when heavy rains and flooding devastated western Japan in 2018. (Kyodo)

"Foreigners are not weak. We can be on the side of supporting others," Tan said.

Hazem Abbas from Egypt, who is studying at a graduate school of Tohoku University, was another participant in the training session.

"After hearing the story of (Tan) serving as a disaster management leader, I became able to imagine myself (in that role)," Abbas said. Both Tan and Abbas spoke in Japanese.

According to the Sendai city government, 13,746 foreigners, including students, reside in the capital of Miyagi Prefecture with its population of 1.09 million as of July 1. But the municipality is not confident enough that evacuation information will reach them in times of disaster.

People attend a training session held by the Sendai Tourism, Convention and International Association to prepare some foreign residents in the city to become leaders who can help others from overseas when natural disasters hit the area. (Kyodo)

"We are hoping they will learn how people should act when natural disasters occur and support others in times of contingencies," an official of the association said.

The next training session will be held in August, during which participants are expected to visit places designated as evacuation shelters in the city, according to the association.

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