Visitors at Japan Disneyland take cover as Earthquake Early Warning system goes off

Visitors at Disneyland Tokyo in Japan were seen crouching close to the ground as an earthquake warning plays in the background after an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck eastern Japan on Friday evening, 26th May. A video of the incident was uploaded to Twitter and has been going viral.

As per NHK World, no damage or loss of life was reported.

Life preserving measures are especially important in Japan as it is one of the world’s most seismically active countries. The warning which was being played in the background is known as an Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system that alerts people if a quake of magnitude 5 or higher is expected.


The EEW system aims to mitigate earthquake damage by allowing people to take shelter and leave dangerous areas in case strong tremors jolt a region.

The video of the EEW system in action at Disneyland was shared online on Friday by Jeffrey J Hall, a professor and junior researcher at Tokyo’s Waseda University.


While tweeting the clip, Hall wrote, “Attention! Prepare for a strong earthquake!” – A video from a few minutes ago shows Tokyo Disneyland’s earthquake warning system in action”.

Since being uploaded the video has been seen by thousands of people and many people have also left comments on the video.

In the comments, many people noted how the visitors immediately crouched to the ground.

Explaining this behaviour, a Twitter user wrote, “It can be nearly impossible to stand in a strong earthquake, so crouching like this minimises the risk of and potential injury from falling. The early warning system does a great job of letting people know that an earthquake may be coming, but not how strong it might be.”

“Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater”, said a report by Reuters.