A total of 150 non-Japanese took part Friday in an annual emergency drill for foreign residents in Tokyo looking to learn or reaffirm how to deal with a disaster like the one that hit March 11.
With the help of 80 volunteer translators covering eight languages, the participants went through eight simulation "zones," including a smoke-filled house, an earthquake simulator and fire extinguisher practice, set up outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Shibuya Ward.
For the first time, the event featured an exercise on how to react during a quake measuring lower 6 on the Japanese intensity scale to 7, in which participants gathered in a room and evacuated the building with a staff member's guidance.