Awareness of self-protection procedures at pre, intra, and post shaking of an earthquake is thought to lead to proper evacuation efforts. This paper investigates the reality of the initial response and circumstances in age groups, instructed by the observations of an actual earthquake, and finally present suggestions. The earthquake that instructs this survey was happened in the central areas of Tottori at 14:07 on October 21, 2016. Schema theory is employed to make apparent the initial behaviour and procedures undertaken by residents and problem coping measures. The survey at the site was conducted twice. In the first of the two surveys we interviewed teachers working at a nursery school, two primary schools and a secondary school, all located around the city centre in Kurayoshi City. In the second survey adult residents around the commuting area of the afore-mentioned schools were interviewed. To investigate further the initial behaviour of the people who were aware of the Earthquake Early Warnings system and had some preparation time to protect against the effects of the earthquake, an additional survey involving teachers and some adults who were located more than 100 km away from the epicentre was conducted. Collected data was processed in age groups; nursery kids, primary school pupils, secondary school pupils, and adults above the age of 20 years old. The result shows that the initial behaviour of adults and school pupils is significantly different. On the subject of the use of self-protection skills, differences can also be found between adult age group and that of age groups below 20 years of age. These differences were discussed from the viewpoint of schema theory. We concluded that adults had participated less in drills to protect themselves, which led to them acquiring little skills toward self-protection. Through this study, we can instruct people on how to acquire the proper knowledge and skills of self-protection by presenting examples of initial behaviour procedures （script） in the event of an earthquake. There has been little study on initial behaviour at an earthquake among age groups. This study in this area contributes to disaster mitigation.
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