World Tsunami Awareness Day
Next: November 5, 2026
Know the signs. Head for high ground.
The story
Where it comes from
The UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day in December 2015, on a resolution drafted by Japan and co-sponsored by 142 countries. The date honours Inamura-no-hi, 'the fire of the rice sheaves'. On 5 November 1854 by the old Japanese calendar, a great earthquake sent a tsunami into Hiro village, in today's Wakayama Prefecture. As night fell, the village leader Hamaguchi Goryo set his harvested rice sheaves alight on the hillside so that people lost in the dark could find their way to high ground.
How it's celebrated
Schools and coastal towns hold evacuation drills and lessons, and UN agencies promote UNESCO's Tsunami Ready programme for coastal communities. In 2025, the Day's tenth anniversary, a summit in Sendai gathered high school students from around the world. In Hiro itself, now the town of Hirogawa, the Tsunami Festival begun in 1903 is still held, with local people piling fresh earth on the sea wall Hamaguchi built.
Did you know
- After the tsunami, Hamaguchi paid for a sea wall about 600 metres long and 5 metres high, giving work to villagers who had lost everything; it kept the 1946 tsunami out of the village.
- 'Tsunami' is Japanese for 'harbour wave', and scientists avoid 'tidal wave' because tsunamis have nothing to do with tides.
- After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the countries around that ocean built a warning system with UNESCO, which became fully operational in 2011.
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