Japan to relay tsunami information

TOKYO – Japan will begin relaying to six western Pacific nations information on where and when earthquake-spawned tsunamis might hit their shores, a government agency said Friday.

Japan and its neighbors agreed in 1999 to set up such a system, but the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which killed over 170,000 people, has given the project greater urgency.

The countries involved in the system, which begins Monday, are China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia, and South Korea.

The Meteorological Agency said when quakes larger than magnitude 6.5 strike, it will issue warnings on whether a tsunami will be generated.

The agency will use special communication networks set up by the World Meteorological Organization to let the countries know if they’re likely to be hit by a tsunami and how tall the wave is expected to be, said Akira Nagai of Japan’s Meteorological Agency.

The information will supplement less detailed tsunami alerts issued to 26 Pacific Ocean nations by a U.N.-coordinated network based in Hawaii.