Japanese News Earthquake Vocabulary

If you are following the news on Japan in Japanese and having difficulty, don't worry, I am sure that you are not alone! Thanks to Japan Newbie (Harvey), help is on the way. He writes:

"Here’s a quick and dirty list of earthquake related Japanese vocabulary and their translations that often appear in the news. This is a work in progress. I will be adding more as I well, read more.Hopefully this will help those people who want to keep up with what the Japanese media is saying about this incredible disaster."You can download a zip file containing MP3 audio for most of the terms here. Thanks to the team at The Japan Shop.com for doing the recording!

Here is an example of the vocabulary available:Rescue and damage

万人単位	まんにんたんい	numbering in the ten thousands (people)	Link
孤立	こりつ	to be isolated	Link
安否確認	あんぴかくにん	confirmation of safety	Link
安否不明	あんぴふめい	unknown whether (they are) safe or not
安否確認が進まず	あんぴかくにんがすすまず	making no progress in regards to confirming the safety of…
炉心溶融	ろしんようゆう	core meltdown	Link
除染 / 除染する	じょせん / じょせんする	decontamination / decontaminate
爆発	ばくはつ	explosion
爆発音	ばくはつおん	sound of an explosion
水素爆発	すいそばくはつ	hydrogen explosion
壊滅的な被害	かいめつてきなひがい	devastating damage
救助ヘリコプター	きゅうじょヘリコプター	rescue helicopter
救助を待っている	きゅうじょをまっている	waiting to be rescued
被災者	ひさいしゃ	victims/sufferers
被災地	ひさいち	hisaichi	disaster area
死者	ししゃ	casualties
死者数	ししゃすう	number of casualties
被害	ひがい	damage
不明	ふめい	unclear (missing people) 死者・不明1400人超 (more than 1,400 dead or missing)
行方不明者	ゆくえふめいしゃ	missing persons

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