OREANDA-NEWS. NTT DOCOMO, INC., a personalized mobile solutions provider for smarter living, announced today that it has developed a prototype multilingual app for its Early Warning "Area MailTM" service that will enable emergency warnings of impending earthquakes or tsunamis in five foreign languages. The app will allow people in Japan who do not speak Japanese to receive warnings, both written and verbal, in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish or Portuguese.

The Early Warning "Area Mail" service, which was originally launched in February 2012, distributes earthquake early warnings and tsunami warnings issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and also local disaster and evacuation information (in Japanese only) issued by national and regional public institutions. The service is designed to function reliably even when mobile networks become congested with heavy traffic.

In the case of an impending earthquake, for example, an early warning will be issued to people in the predicted area, causing users' smartphones to begin making a distinctive alarm-like sound followed by a voice readout saying "Earthquake" in the preset language. Simultaneously, the phone will display an Area Mail message that reads "Earthquake Warning: Strong shaking is expected soon. Stay calm and seek shelter nearby."

The multilingual text messages have been prepared with support from the Japan Meteorological Agency. DOCOMO developed the app under the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program, which is administered by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation.

The new app will be displayed during the meeting of the Sendai Committee for the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which will begin in Japan on March 14.

About NTT DOCOMO

NTT DOCOMO provides innovative, convenient and secure mobile services that enable smarter living for each customer. The company serves over 65 million mobile customers in Japan via advanced wireless networks, including a nationwide 3G network and one of the world's first commercial LTE networks. Leveraging its unique capabilities as a mobile operator, DOCOMO is a leading developer of cutting-edge technologies for NFC mobile payments, mobile GPS, mobile TV, intuitive mobile assistance, environmental monitoring, smart grids and much more. Overseas, the company provides technical and operational expertise to eight mobile operators and other partner companies. DOCOMO is listed on the Tokyo (9437) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges.