Japan prepares GPS-linked emergency app for nationals abroad
The Foreign Ministry hopes to launch the app in fiscal 2027, combining consent-based location checks with safety alerts and paperwork for longer stays.
- Japan's Foreign Ministry is developing a new smartphone app to locate and confirm the safety of its nationals abroad during emergencies like armed conflicts or disasters.
- The app will use GPS data with user consent to track location and is being designed to function even when mobile reception is poor.
- It is intended to replace the current, little-known "Tabi-Regi" service and will integrate its functions, such as sending local safety information.
- The ministry aims to launch the app in fiscal year 2027 and may also include features for submitting official documents for long-term stays.
A new smartphone app is being designed to help Japan’s Foreign Ministry establish more quickly whether nationals caught in armed conflicts or major disasters overseas are safe and where they are.
Using GPS data only with each person’s consent, it would cover Japanese citizens living abroad as well as those travelling outside the country.
Informed sources revealed the project on Wednesday (September 2), with the ministry aiming to begin operation in fiscal 2027.
A ministry survey put willingness to share location information during an emergency at about 80% of respondents.
Recognition of Tabi-Regi was more limited.
Fewer than 20% of all respondents knew of the service, while awareness among people travelling outside Japan was about 30%.
Introduced by the ministry in 2014, Tabi-Regi supplies Japanese nationals overseas with local safety information by email or through the LINE messaging app.
Those functions are likely to be transferred to the new platform, which is being developed partly because the existing service remains little known.
“(Tabi-Regi’s) low visibility is a serious problem,” a senior ministry official said.
“We plan to raise awareness of the new app and ensure that it is user-friendly.”
Embassy staff currently try to establish whether nationals are safe by telephone after conflicts and disasters abroad.
Weak or absent mobile signals can obstruct those checks.
The proposed system is intended to retain location-tracking capability when reception is poor.
Officials are also examining an in-app exchange that would allow the ministry to ask whether a user is safe and receive the answer through the same service.
Another part of the plan concerns paperwork for longer periods overseas.
Users staying abroad for at least three months may be able to submit the required documents and apply for stay certificates through the app.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
