Earthquake Alert on Japanese Phones

I just read that Apple has introduced an earthquake alert app on its newest IOS operating system for iPhones in Japan. Because Japan operates on a different operating system from the rest of the world, I have a phone just for Japan. It came automatically with an earthquake alert, and believe me, when it went off in the middle of the night and I jumped out of a deep sleep to read “Earthquake alert” on my phone, it scared me out of my wits. It turned out to be a false alarm, though it took a while to figure that out as I braced myself in the door jam of a very old structure.

When I expressed to a Japanese friend that I worried whether the alert was still on, and how would I know there was going to be an earthquake, she laughed and said, “You’ll know, because everyone else’s phone will be going off.”