The Difference Between Japan’s Evacuation Shelters and Evacuation Areas

More Than One in Three Unsure

A survey held online in July 2025 asked people in Japan if they knew the difference between an evacuation shelter (hinanjo) and an evacuation area (hinan basho). The survey was conducted by the research company Cross Marketing, and targeting people aged 20 to 79, received 3,000 valid responses in total (1,500 men and 1,500 women).

When asked about the difference between evacuation areas and evacuation shelters, 34% answered that they were “not really sure,” 31.8% said they “know they are different, but can’t explain how,” and 14.4% thought “they mean the same thing.” The percentage of those who “understand the difference and can explain how” stood at just 19.8%.

According to the Cabinet Office, evacuation areas are places where people go in an emergency to protect themselves at the time of a disaster, such as parks, high ground, and tsunami evacuation towers. Evacuation shelters, on the other hand, are places where disaster victims can live for a certain period of time after a disaster, and are mainly indoor facilities like community centers, schools, and gymnasiums. Evacuation areas and evacuation shelters are designated by local governments based on the type of disaster.

When asked at which alert level they would evacuate, the most common response, at 42.1%, was level 4, when all residents must evacuate. Respondents who said they “won’t evacuate regardless of the alert level” accounted for 18.7%. Among the reasons they gave for that decision was “my home is safer than an evacuation area” and “there is no privacy at evacuation areas.”

Please note that there are no official English translations for hinanjo (避難所), translated here as “evacuation shelter,” or hinan basho (避難場所), translated here as “evacuation area,” so English wording on signage and so on may vary from the terms used in this article.

Data Sources

• 2025 Disaster Prevention Awareness Survey (Japanese) from Cross Marketing.
• Evacuation Alert Levels (Japanese) from the Public Relations Office, Government of Japan.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)