North Korea fired missile! J-Alert! Was it needed?

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First (North Korea fired missile! J-Alert! Was it needed?)

On August 29th, 2017, at around 6 A.M. Japan time, a missile from North Korea was fired and passed over Japan. Then it landed on the place where is about 1000 km to the east of Erimo Cape. At the time, J-Alert was heard. Regarding J-Alert, it is defined as follows;

J-Alert is a nickname known all over Japan. It is an alarm system that is immediately heard to inform the people of emergency situations by using a satellite and disaster prevention radio of cities. It aims to notify the citizens directly from the government during emergencies such as earthquake, tsunami, firing ballistic missile, and the like. It was installed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Fire Department. It has been operating since 2007.

Quotation：コトバンク　Jアラート

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北朝鮮がミサイル 発射　そのときJアラートは…

Question

You can hear a conversation between two people after you play the sound. Answer the questions about the conversation.

Sound 1

Conversation 1

Did you hear the J-Alert this early morning? Where did you escape?

Ah. North Korea fired missile, didn’t they. I was sleeping at that time. I turned off the emergency early warning on my iPhone yesterday since I already found out the possibility of firing a missile by North Korea.

Why? Why did you turn it off? You are supposed to turn it ON rather OFF.

If you say so then I’ll ask you, where did you escape when the missile passed over Japan?

No, I didn’t escape. I heard the J-Alert, then checked my phone, the message on the phone showed ‘Escape to a hard building or under ground’. But I couldn’t find such place where I can escape. There is the AEON and it is a hard building, but it’s not yet open when the J-alert was heard. So, I turned the TV on, watched the news broad casted that ‘The missile just passed over Japan now’. It was within 5 minutes after the J-Alert was heard.

It was! By the time the J-Alert was heard, we only had 5 minutes to move and think about where the best place to escape is. I don’t think it’s enough. Even if it’s heard, I think it’s not helpful at all. What the people can only do is to pray that the missile doesn’t head to Japan.

Question 1

What did Tetsuya do when J-Alert issue?
A. He was walking around outside.
B. He was looking at his phone.
C. He was sleeping.
D. He was escaping to under ground.

Answer and Explanation 1

Answer：C
He said ‘I was sleeping at that time’.
B: The action is for Mariko.
A and D are not mentioned.

Sound 2

Conversation 2

I checked Yahoo! News, it seemed that there were many troubles. For example, the disaster management administrative radio didn’t work and the early emergency warning e-mail sent by the Municipality didn’t reach to the citizens.

There’re many irresponsible municipalities. The municipalities are supposed to inform the citizens in advance on how they should act and where they should escape. The news of North Korea possibly firing a missile was delivered yesterday. The problem is that not all citizens and municipalities were reached by the J-Alert and the early emergency warning e-mail. So, I think those are out of the question.

Horiemon twitted ‘Don’t wake me up with worthless things! Seriously.’ on Twitter. He turned his notification alert on his phone off, he stayed at the hotel, but was woken up by the J-Alert in the hotel. After he twitted on twitter, he received many pros and cons comments and these started an argument. Some cons said ‘You can’t say that if the missile really fall to Japan. The system is for our protection, isn’t it?’ and so on.

It seems like that. I understand what the cons want to say, but you have experienced, haven’t you? What could you do in such a short period of time when the J-Alert was heard? In the first place, he was staying at the hotel at that time, the hotel seemed like a hard building. So, where should he run away after going out of the hotel?

Question 2

What did Horiemon tweet with anger on Twitter?
A. I didn’t make an insider deal!
B. Why wasn’t the J-Alert heard earlier!
C. Don’t wake me up with worthless things!
D. My rocket development has not failed yet.

Answer and Explanation 2

Answer：C
A: He seemed to really say so, but it’s not mentioned on this article.
B: He didn’t say so.
D: Horiemon has developed a rocket with one company, and it failed to launch a few days ago. But he didn’t clearly mention about it like answer D, but anyway, it has nothing to do with this article.

Sound 3

Conversation 3

The updated news came out just now, ministry of defense is explaining why they didn’t intercept the missile fired by North Korea. They said ‘We could, but didn’t. No need to’. What does it mean?

It means their judgment was that the missile was not launched to target Japan. Think about that. What is the benefit of attacking Japan?

Japan is one of the advanced countries. So, if they could take Japan down, it could show how strong they are, couldn’t they?

No. No. They ignore Japan because they think Japan would go down even without attacking it. Their target is America. They intimidate America by saying ‘We’ll fire missile if you complain’ But what they really want is to negotiate with America with an agreement that would favor them more. Perhaps, they want to take over the world.

I see. By the way, I sent you a LINE message this morning. Have you checked it? I think not yet because there is no ‘read’ sign yet.

Ah, I turned the notification on LINE off, too.

Question 3

Why didn’t they intercept the missile？
A. They did’t have the confidence of intercepting the missile even if they launch one too.
B. Their judgment is no need to intercept it.
C. They thought America was supposed to intercept it instead.
D. They didn’t prepare for the interceptor missile.

Answer and Explanation 3

Answer：B
It mentioned that ‘We could, but didn’t. No need to’.
A: There is a possibility, but it’s not mentioned in this article.
C and D are not mentioned.

Let’s talk more!

What do you think about J-Alert?
Let’s talk about it with your friend.
How is the situation in other countries?
Ask your teacher or a foreigner about it.

Example

1. Why do you think that J-Alert is needed from now on?
2. What were you doing when J-Alert was heard?
3. Do you think that the development and installation of J-Alert is worthy and cost effective even if it costed around 10 billion yen?
4. Do you think North Korea would launch another missile to another country? In that case, which country do you think it will be?