how does one get earthquake info while in Japan
 

I don't speak a word of Japanese. :) During the earthquake the other day, I heard warning announcements, but it was in Japanese(duh!) There are thousands of Americans and other English-speaking folks and I"m wondering how do they get up-to-date earthquake info? (or God forbid, tsunami warning) Are there English radio stations?

I ended up reading about the earthquake on CNN.com and then the USGS website. :)

Some of those people might also know Japanese too, but for those who don't, this is the better English source, as it will give you the affected areas and how much shaking based on the Japanese shindo scale etc:

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/

In case of a major event, NHK (Channel 1 on basic tv) will have English on their secondary audio feed. News Watch 7 and News Watch 9 (weekdays at 7pm and 9pm) are also translated into English (secondary audio feed).

"QuakeFeed" is a very useful app on my phone here

"Yurekuru call" is bilingual for iOS and android devices.

There are, indeed, also some English radio stations. The main ones are Inter FM in Tokyo (76.1) and FM CoCoLo in Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto (76.5). They are mostly English but occasionally carry programming in other foreign languages.

If you are in Tokyo or another area near a US military base (Okinawa, Misawa, Sasebo, Iwakuni), you can also find the Armed Forces Network on the AM dial. It is 810 AM in Tokyo. AFN broadcasts in English 24/7.

I used to have Inter FM on in the car, but it's all foreign DJs who speak Japanese and say one or two phrases in English once in a while. And then they would have 30 seconds of news at the top of the hour in English. The traffic information is all in Japanese at machine gun speed. The American DJ says in English, "Drivers, be careful out there and here's the latest traffic with Mayumi......." and off she goes. Inter FM broadcasts on 76.5 in Yokohama.

AFN is mostly canned programming from the US but during the daytime they have their own (awful) DJs. I wonder if AFN had special coverage after the big quake? There is nothing useful about this station. During my typical drive time around 7 pm they have this awful anti-Rush Limbaugh talk radio guy then followed by Rush himself. Since Obama is commander-in-chief, I guess they give the lefty the prime spot. A funny thing about 810 is that like halfway between Tokyo and Nagano a quite strong Russian station tunes in for a short spell of time just as you are losing the AFN signal.

During a real crisis like March 11 then the NHK international feed (via internet) is useful. They had constant coverage of the aftermath and the nuclear crisis.