In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, when everything came to a standstill, the availability of information was the difference between life and death for many people. While some lives were saved by the information they had beforehand, others may have lost their lives because of it.

There must have been many lives that could have been saved if the information had been available immediately afterwards.
We, modern people, trust our lives to information.
Without information, action is delayed.

But when a disaster of that magnitude strikes, you have to use your intuition and act on your own before waiting for information.

Excerpt from the description of the permanent exhibition at Rias Ark Museum

NERV Disaster Prevention: Delivering the most appropriate information at the fastest level in Japan

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Release 2023.09.01
Strong-Motion Monitor Layer

The Strong-Motion Monitor layer is a feature that displays the real-time shaking situation throughout Japan, as observed by the Strong-Motion Observation Network (a network of seismometers for recording strong shaking), operated by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED). When an Earthquake Early Warning (Forecast) is issued, the Strong-Motion Monitor layer automatically integrates and displays the information from the EEW, including the forecasted Seismic Intensity distribution, and estimated propagation of the P and S waves along side the Strong-Motion data.

If you enable Shaking Detection Notifications, you can receive Push Notifications when shaking from an earthquake is believed to have been detected. In some cases, it is possible to detect and be notified about earthquakes for which no Earthquake Early Warning has been issued. Please note that the detection method is not perfect, and notifications may be sent due to false positives.

kmoni images

The Strong-Motion Monitor layer has been experimentally worked on since February 2023 based on the "Joint Research Implementation Plan for the Utilisation of Strong-Motion Monitor Data" which was established by four parties: the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), Gehirn Inc., TBS Television Inc., and TBS / JNN NEWS DIG LLC. This service has been made available to the general public through the "Mutual Cooperation Agreement for the Utilisation of Strong-Motion Monitor Data". Gehirn Inc. processes and distributes the information received from a dedicated communications line installed at NIED. This dedicated line uses a redundant configuration to ensure a fast and reliable service for the NERV Disaster Prevention app. Please note that this is a separate service from the "Strong-Motion Monitor" web service provided by NIED.

Towards Universal Design
Accessibility for all

Tailor the app’s interface to your own preference.
Choose a colour scheme that’s optimised for colour vision deficiency/colour blindness(※1), change the contrast to suit visual sensitivity(※2) and low vision, adjust the text size and thickness, or even make use of VoiceOver, throughout the app.
Learn more on the Accessibility Features page.

※ 1. Colour vision deficiency can be a group of eye conditions in which the photoreceptor cells (cone cells) that identify colours, recognise and discriminate differently from the majority. There are three types: Standard colour vision, Deuteranopia/Protanopia (red/green colour deficiency), Tritanopia (blue/yellow colour deficiency), and Monochromacy (achromatopsia/complete colour deficiency).
※ 2. Visual hypersensitivity is a sensory sensitivity of the eyes to brightness and colour. Symptoms include difficulty keeping the eyes open due to glare from the sun, and inability to look directly at certain colours or combinations of colours, such as primary colours.

  • EEW
  • Radar
  • Tsunami Information
  • Appearance
  • Screen Reader
  • Weather Forecast
  • Weather Warnings
Light Theme Images Light Theme Images

The NERV Disaster Prevention app is a smartphone service that delivers optimised disaster prevention and weather information, such as earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruption bulletins, as well as landslide, flooding and inundation risk information based on the user’s current and registered locations. The app has been developed to assist residents and visitors to areas where damage is expected to occur to accurately recognise the situation and make quick decisions to be able to take action.

The provided disaster prevention and weather information is received directly through a dedicated line connected to the Meteorological Service Support Centre (in both the main building of the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Osaka District Meteorological Observatory) to ensure the reliability of the information, and our independently developed technology enables the fastest level of information distribution in Japan.

Various Disaster InformationAll in One Place

Receive a wide range of disaster prevention information - real-time earthquake early warnings (with expected seismic intensity at your current location and a countdown until the arrival of shaking), earthquake, tsunami, and volcanic eruption early warnings, weather warnings and advisories, landslide, flooding and inundation risk distribution, rain cloud radar, real-time weather observations, typhoon information, ashfall forecasts, snow depth, and even J-Alert (Civil Protection Information) - in just one app. By touching the map displayed on the screen, you can view rain cloud conditions and local seismic intensity at any scale.

Providing Users With the Most Appropriate Disaster Information

The home screen displays the information you need at the time and place you need it. When there’s an earthquake, the home screen will show you the latest information. If another type of warning or alert is issued while the earthquake is active, the app will sort them depending on the type, elapsed time and urgency, so you’ll always have the most important information at your fingertips.

The timeline screen shows you information related to your current location (or your registered areas) for the past three days. Before a flood or landslide caused by heavy rain, a lot of relevant information will be available, so you can confirm and react to the immediate situation at a glance.

Home window, Timeline window, and Earthquake window
FEATURE 01

At-a-glance design

Disaster prevention and weather information are integrated with an easy-to-understand map interface, so you can find the information you need at a glance. On the home screen, information is automatically sorted according to importance.

FEATURE 02

Useful for daily activities

Check the rain cloud radar and weather forecasts, as well as other useful daily information such as current temperature, wind speed and direction and volcanic ashfall forecasts.

FEATURE 03

Unobtrusive by nature

We don’t send unnecessary push notifications such as advertisements or announcements. There are no advertisements or pop-ups in the app that interfere with operation. We only provide you with the information you need for disaster prevention.

FEATURE 04

Real-time updates

Real-time earthquake alerts that display the expected seismic intensity at your current location and the number of seconds until arrival, seismic intensity and tsunami information that is automatically updated while the screen is open, and lightning strike information* that is updated every minute. Other frequently updated information is also immediately reflected.
* Lightning strike information is currently only available through Early Access to Supporters’ Club members.

Push Notifications for Important Information

We send out different types of notifications depending on the device’s location, the type of information and level of urgency. If the information is not urgent, we send a silent notification as not to disturb the user. For more urgent situations where a disaster is time-sensitive, a ‘Critical Alert’ alerts the user to an imminent danger. Notifications like Earthquake Early Warnings (Alert level) and Tsunami Warnings will be forced to sound, even if the device is in Silent or Do Not Disturb modes.

※ If you prefer not to have critical alerts, you can disable them at any time from; [iOS] Settings > Notifications > Critical Alerts, or [Android] Settings > Notifications > Silent Mode Exception (Android 9.0 or later). When disabled, critical alerts will be treated as normal notifications.

A Critical Alert is shown on the lock screen

Supporters' Club

The "NERV Disaster Prevention App Supporters Club" is a fan club where users can choose to support the NERV Disaster Prevention App through a monthly subscription. You'll get access to exclusive perks, like "early access" to new/unreleased features, an increased number of registered locations, and access to members-only content on higher plans.

In order to continue to provide a stable service and to strengthen our research and development efforts, we decided to establish the Supporters' Club. For more information, take a look at the Supporters' Club homepage.

Plans

E Plan¥250/m*
  • Registered Location IconMore Registered Locations
  • Membership Card IconDigital Membership Card
  • Smartphone IconEarly Access Features
EE Plan¥480/m*
  • Registered Location IconMore Registered Locations
  • Membership Card IconDigital Membership Card
  • Smartphone IconEarly Access Features
  • Document IconMembers-only Content

* Please note that the subscription price is determined by the App Store/Google Play Store based on the country/region your Apple ID/Google Play account is associated with, and may be different from the price displayed above.

Disaster Awareness Series

We created this series of commercials as a message of 'self-discipline' to ourselves. Japan is a country that experiences frequent natural disasters, so it's important that the message we wish to convey with this series, is that "so long as you're here, be prepared".

Voice Actor: Koichi Yamadera / Planning and Production: Gehirn Inc. / Video Production: mimoid inc. and Shunsuke Sugiyama / Music Production: PASOCOM MUSIC CLUB / Cooperation: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan

NERV Disaster Response Vehicle Introduction Video
Reflection is about thinking about the future

The NERV Disaster Response Vehicle is a PHEV, a hybrid vehicle with power generation capabilities, that can be deployed to ensure that our information dissemination activities can continue in the event of an accident or disaster that results in a prolonged power outage.

When we imagined what would happen if a blackout like the one caused by the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake were to occur in the Tokyo metropolitan area, we could see ourselves helplessly regretting our lack of preparedness. As long as such events are possible, we want to be as prepared as possible.

Voice Actor: Tetsuya Iwanaga (portrayed Kensuke Aida in the Neon Genesis: Evangelion series) / Planning and Production: Gehirn Inc. / Video Production: mimoid inc. and Shunsuke Sugiyama / Music Production: PASOCOM MUSIC CLUB / Audio Production: Takaki Kato (TREE Digital Studio) / Assistants: Ayuko Kuwata, Kanta Doki, Yutaro Nakamura / Cooperation: Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, when everything came to a standstill, the availability of information was the difference between life and death for many people. While some lives were saved by the information they had beforehand, others may have lost their lives because of it.

There must have been many lives that could have been saved if the information had been available immediately afterwards.
We, modern people, trust our lives to information.
Without information, action is delayed.

But when a disaster of that magnitude strikes, you have to use your intuition and act on your own before waiting for information.

Excerpt from the description of the permanent exhibition at Rias Ark Museum

Reliability

Privacy

The NERV Disaster Prevention app puts user privacy and security first. The app does not acquire any information about the user or their device that are not required to help the app to function. The user’s detailed location information (precise position) is only used for disaster prevention purposes and is calculated and processed entirely on-device, and is never transmitted externally. Location information required for push notifications of disaster prevention information is stored on the device only after having been converted to an area code (similar to that of a postcode). No location history is stored either on your device or the server, so your movements cannot be tracked.

Credibility

The Earthquake Early Warning service of the NERV Disaster Prevention app has been reviewed for operational systems, equipment and technical suitability, and is distributed under a licence from the Director General of the Japan Meteorological Agency to forecast earthquake ground motion. The Risk Distribution notification service was jointly developed with the JMA as a cooperating operator. Other disaster prevention and weather information that’s displayed in the app is processed independently based on JMA data. The maps are independently created based on the Geographical Survey Institute’s map data.

System Reliability

The NERV Disaster Prevention app’s information processing system is connected by a dedicated line to the Japan Meteorological Agency’s main office in Tokyo, and the Meteorological Service Support Centre at the Osaka District Meteorological Observatory. The system is geographically redundant with multiple data centres based in Tokyo and Osaka, and is designed to be able to continue working in the event of a major disaster.

Support Information

question mark

Check the FAQ first!

The FAQ page answers questions we frequently receive, as well as includes additional information on how to manage your Supporters’ Club subscription.

E-mail icon

If the problem persists...

If your question was not answered on the FAQ page, please contact us via the Contact Us form. ※ Please note that our responses may be delayed as we’re only a small team of developers.

Privacy ※3

Acquired location information and registered area information is used only for displaying disaster prevention information and sending push notifications. Location information sent from the application to the server is converted into an area code or mesh code in advance, within the application (client side), and only those codes are sent over the internet. In other words, the user’s detailed location coordinates never leave your device.

Battery Consumption ※4

If the app's location setting is set to "Always Allow," the app will periodically retrieve your location in the background. This should have very little impact on your battery life. Also, when "Low Power Mode" is enabled, the app will not update your location in order to reduce power consumption.

Requests and Feedback

Please use the review function on the App Store or Google Play Store for any requests or feedback regarding additional features or quality improvements. ※ Please note that we may not respond to requests submitted via the Contact Us form.

The NERV Disaster Prevention App is a smartphone service that delivers earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption and emergency warnings, as well as provides weather-related disaster prevention information for flooding and landslides, optimised based on the user's current and registered locations. It was developed to help people living in or visiting an area where damage is expected to occur, to accurately assess the situation and make quick decisions and actions.

With information received directly through a leased line connected to the Japan Meteorological Agency, our proprietary technology enables the fastest information distribution in Japan.

※3 Gehirn Inc. is first and foremost an information security company. The security and privacy of our users is our highest priority. We take great care not to collect excessive amounts of information about our users through this application.

Acquired location and registered location information is used only for displaying disaster prevention information, and for sending push notifications. The location information that's sent from the app to the server is first converted to an area code. An area code is roughly equivalent to a zip code. Only that code is sent to the server, meaning the user's exact location is never sent to the server.

For example, if you were located in "Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo", it will be converted to a code that is used by everyone in Chiyoda-ku, so no one will ever be able to trace your exact location back to you. Additionally, the server doesn't store past area codes, so your movements cannot be tracked.

All data sent over the internet is first encrypted, and all data stored in the server's database is encrypted before being stored. If you ever set your location permissions to "Do Not Allow" or "Allow Only While Using", the registration information will be deleted from the server. Additionally, if the user ever uninstalls the app, the registration information will automatically be deleted from the server roughly one month after the app last tried to communicate with the server.

※4. In order to receive notifications about disasters related to your current location; [iOS] Set Location permissions to "Always Allow" and enable "Background App Refresh". [Android] Set Location permissions to "Always Allow".

When you set the app's location permissions to "Always Allow", the app will periodically retrieve your location in the background. This doesn't happen often, so the battery usage impact is negligible. Additionally, if "Low Power Mode" is enabled, the app will not update your location in the background in order to save power.

  • The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series.
  • The fonts "AXIS" and "DIN 2014" are used under the paid license terms set by each respective type foundry. The "Inter" font is graciously used as part of the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
  • The explanatory text for the permanent exhibition of "Rias Ark Museum" on this website is taken from the keyword "Information" panel of the permanent exhibition "History and Records of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster", and is used under the permission of Rias Ark Museum.