New mobile fire alert system for hotels.

Fire safety is one of Japan's greatest national obsessions. The phrase "hi no youjin" (火の用心, meaning beware of fire) has been preached for decades, maybe even centuries, and the national Fire and Disaster Management Agency is always in the midst of some kind of campaign to prevent house fires, which are pretty common in the dry season. The Agency's newest initiative has been to offer hotels and inns with a free downloadable software that would send e-mails to guests' cell phones in case of a fire. The program will automatically keep a list of all current guests and sends an auto-alert when the fire starts. This way, we can avoid tragedies like the Hotel New Japan fire of 1982 that killed over 30 people. At left: regional fire warning signs that are as cute as a button. Story here.