Abstract
When the Noto Peninsula Earthquake occurred in January 2024, NHK announcers used a strong tone of voice and expressions such as “Imasugu nigeru koto!” (you must get away right now!) to call on the residents to evacuate from possible tsunamis. To study how people perceived such a tone and expressions that strongly urged evacuation, NHK conducted a nation-wide survey in February 2024. The result finds that more than 90% of people received the call positively, which indicates that these announcements served well in terms of demonstrating that the situation was an extreme emergency. Meanwhile, as to the future use of these expressions in broadcasts, almost one out of four people responded, “These expressions can be used but should not be overused,” which suggests that the overuse of these tone and expressions may diminish their effectiveness. In contrast to “hinan shite (evacuate),” which was used in many announcements at the time of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, “nigete (get away)” was predominantly used for the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The nationwide survey also asked which expression, “nigete” or “hinan (shite)” would communicate that an imminent danger. To which nearly 80% chose “nigete.” The difference is that “nigeru (to get away)” is a wago, native Japanese word, and “hinan (suru) (to evacuate)” is a kango, Sino-Japanese word (words derived from Chinese), and, in general, native Japanese words are easier to communicate the message in spoken language. In the call for evacuation, the use of the native Japanese word 'get away' is presumably a more straightforward expression for conveying the message to the recipients.
