Analysis of the Local Distribution of Digital Multicultural Information on Disaster Prevention in Aichi Prefecture

The population of foreign residents in Japan continues to grow every year, and national authorities now need to distribute information to all those who live within the country regardless of their cultural background, native language, or nationality. In a disaster-prone country, disaster prevention information systems are essential for daily life as an ecosystem that should be complex and responsive to the needs of the individuals. This paper reviews how information on natural disasters is distributed in the local governments of Aichi, the prefecture in Japan with the second-highest concentration of foreigners and one of the most important industrial centers in the country. To examine the accessibility of the foreigneroriented disaster prevention information of the local governments of Aichi Prefecture, the author carried out data collection from October to December 2021 and tabulated commonalities and differences among websites using foreign language use, type of translation, content creation, and technical innovation as parameters. The results show that even when there are initiatives to eliminate language barriers, the information on web pages is not designed to be consumed by foreign residents. This results in low accessibility and availability of disaster prevention information for the foreign residents of Aichi Prefecture.