Changelog
A record of Sokoshira's feature additions, improvements, and bug fixes, newest first. Additions or changes to the data used for assessments are also noted here.
v1.16.1September 19, 2026
- Adjusted the limit on PDF creation. Downloading a PDF that has already been created no longer counts toward the limit, and the limit itself was raised. On mobile networks many people share the same connection, so the earlier setting could make unrelated users wait.
v1.16.0September 19, 2026
- Added “Download PDF.” You can now save the A4 preparedness sheet as a PDF file from the results screen. Until now the button only opened the print dialog and left no file.
- You can print it at a convenience store. Hand the saved PDF to “かんたんnetprint” (7-Eleven) or “Network Print” (Lawson, FamilyMart and others) and print it in store. See Printing at a Convenience Store. No printer at home needed.
v1.15.1September 18, 2026
- Fixed printed English sheets running off the page. English text is longer than Japanese, so the table on the first page and the hazard-by-hazard details did not fit on A4 and spilled onto extra sheets. Without making the text smaller, the table columns were adjusted and the details are now split across pages according to their length.
v1.15.0September 18, 2026
- Added “If You Live With a Pet” to the results. Based on the flooding and sediment-disaster risk at the location, it suggests whether to leave early with your pet or whether staying home may be an option. It also lists what to take (at least 5 days of food and water) and what to prepare now, following the Ministry of the Environment’s guidelines for people and pets.
- Whether each shelter accepts pets is not shown, because no official nationwide data exists. A link is provided to look up your municipality’s rules.
- Added a pet page to the printable preparedness sheet, with a checklist of what to take and spaces for your pet’s name, vaccines, vet and who can look after it. If you do not have a pet, you can skip printing this page.
v1.14.0September 15, 2026
- The "Add to Home Screen" prompt now appears only on phones and tablets. It is no longer shown at the bottom of the screen on computers.
- Reworded the service description to make clear that assessments are based on hazard map data. About Sokoshira now explains how Sokoshira differs from official hazard maps and how to print an A4 sheet.
- Removed "Natural Disaster Monuments," which is no longer used, from the data sources.
v1.13.1August 28, 2026
- Changed the link at the bottom of the screen to "How to add to Home Screen". It previously read "Add to Home Screen", which could be read as adding it on the spot. What it actually opens is the instructions. The button that does add it on the spot (Chrome on Android and similar) keeps its own wording.
v1.13.0Aug 28, 2026
- Added an "Add to Home Screen" button in the site footer. On browsers that support it (such as Chrome on Android), tapping it opens the device's own install dialog. On browsers that do not (such as Safari on iPhone), a link to the step-by-step instructions is shown instead.
- Nothing is shown if you are already running Sokoshira from your home screen.
v1.12.2Aug 28, 2026
- Added instructions for adding Sokoshira to your home screen to "About Sokoshira", with separate steps for iPhone (Safari) and Android (Chrome). There is also a link in the site footer.
- The app icon now uses the same mark as the site (a magnifier and location pin on white).
v1.12.1Aug 28, 2026
- Fixed the home screen icon on iPhone, which showed the first letter of the name instead of the Sokoshira mark. The icon image had transparent corners, which iOS does not accept. If you have already added Sokoshira to your home screen, please remove it and add it again — iOS stores the icon on the device and will not update it on its own.
v1.12.0Aug 27, 2026
- Added support for "Add to Home Screen" on smartphones. Once added, Sokoshira opens like an app rather than a browser tab. Until now no icon had been provided, so iPhone used a shrunken screenshot of the page. A dedicated icon based on the Sokoshira mark (a magnifier with a location pin) is now set.
- A separate maskable icon is provided so the artwork is not clipped on devices that crop icons into circles or rounded shapes.
- The app itself now opens even without a network connection. Assessments cannot be run offline, however — results are never stored on the device. Hazard maps are updated over time, so we do not keep and display an old assessment.
v1.11.0Aug 12, 2026
- Rebuilt "Print / Save as PDF". It used to print this screen as-is. It is now a purpose-built "Household Disaster Preparedness Sheet" for reading on paper: 6 A4 pages covering the overall assessment and all 8 hazards (p1), what to do now and nearby shelters (p2), emergency contacts and fill-in fields for your family (p3), hazard-by-hazard details (p4-5), and the assessed location plus terms (p6).
- Added fill-in fields for things a family should agree on in advance: where to meet (first and second choice), how to check on each other, family and relatives' contacts, and medical conditions/medication/family doctor (optional).
- Added attribution and contact details for BRIDGE — the design office that planned and built Sokoshira — to the printed sheet. Since you cannot click a link on paper, the sheet now states where to report an error in an assessment, or to get in touch.
- Added a fill-in "Contact" column to the nearby shelters table. The national shelter dataset contains no phone numbers, so it prints blank — look it up on your municipality's website and write it in. Note that most shelters are schools or parks whose own phone lines often go unanswered at night, on holidays, or during a disaster; to ask whether a shelter is open, use the municipality's disaster management office, also listed on the sheet.
- The sheet stays readable in black and white, and also when "background graphics" is turned off in the print dialog. Risk level is shown three ways — the letter (S-D), a written label, and the number of filled squares — never by color alone.
- Stated in two places on the sheet that "D (Not Designated) does not mean safe".
- The sheet is printed in English when the site is set to English.
v1.10.3Aug 11, 2026
- The preview image shown when the URL is shared on social media listed only 5 hazards; corrected it to the 8 actually assessed.
v1.10.2Aug 10, 2026
- The home page listed only 7 hazards (urban flooding was missing). Since 8 are actually assessed, this was corrected in both Japanese and English.
v1.10.1Aug 10, 2026
- Moved the service to a new server (no change to the display or assessment results).
- Fixed the "To compare with another address…" hint, which referred to the button's position incorrectly on desktop layouts.
v1.10.0Aug 5, 2026
- Added support for searching general addresses written in English (e.g. "4-2-8 Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo"). Using Japan Post's free nationwide postal code dataset (readings for every town/area name in the country), the English words you enter are converted to the Japanese address before searching. Also works when only a ward name is given for a designated city (e.g. "Kita-ku, Osaka").
- This conversion is approximate matching, not a true translation, so it can occasionally fail to match or match a different candidate. Even when the specific town/area can't be pinned down, searching down to the prefecture/city level still works.
v1.9.2Aug 5, 2026
- Fixed a bug where the search suggestion list could be hidden, clipped by the same frame as the decorative background map. This was especially severe in English, where a longer warning message could push the entire list out of view, showing zero candidates.
v1.9.1Aug 5, 2026
- Fixed a bug where searching "Tokyo Tower" — the very example shown in the English search placeholder — returned no results, because Japan's official geocoding data only recognizes Japanese names. About 50 well-known landmarks (Tokyo Tower, Osaka Castle, Mt. Fuji, and more) can now be searched by their English name.
- Added English versions of the "About Sokoshira," "Terms of Use," "Privacy Policy," and "Changelog" pages. Footer links now follow the selected display language.
v1.9.0Aug 5, 2026
- Added an English display mode (top-right "English"). Address search, hazard-by-hazard assessments, map legends, shelter information, and nearly all other text in the service can now be read in English.
- The locations that can be assessed remain limited to Japan. Addresses themselves and place names from hazard maps are still shown in Japanese.
v1.8.0Aug 5, 2026
- Added this changelog page, accessible any time from the footer.
v1.7.1Aug 3, 2026
- Fixed a bug where searching by facility name and getting only one result could silently navigate to an unrelated, distant location. A single low-precision address candidate is now still shown in a list for confirmation.
v1.7.0Aug 3, 2026
- Fixed a bug where exact matches for facility/landmark names (e.g. Tokyo Tower) rarely appeared in search results.
v1.6.0Aug 3, 2026
- Revised page descriptions and keywords to be more discoverable in searches for Japanese terms meaning "disaster map" and "disaster prevention map."
v1.4.0–v1.5.0Aug 3, 2026
- Added an "Overall Assessment" (S–D) spanning all hazard categories to each result.
- Changed the comparison list's column-switching buttons to make it visually clear they can be selected.
- Moved the "Add to comparison list" button directly below the map, and changed its label to use part of the address (e.g. a neighborhood name) for clarity.
- Simplified heading wording by removing a redundant leading word ("this") in Japanese.
- Fixed a bug where the "Support by sharing" button did not work.
v1.3.1Aug 1, 2026
- Reordered the "How to Read the Risk Levels" explanation to appear before the assessment results.
v1.3.0Aug 1, 2026
- Changed the risk rank (S–D) explanation to a scale using the actual badges, for a more intuitive read.
v1.2.1–v1.2.2Aug 1, 2026
- Revised the icon and color of the emergency contact phone buttons.
- Adjusted the look of the "Back to map" button.
v1.2.0Aug 1, 2026
- Redesigned the designated emergency shelter icon to be clearer.
- Discontinued display of natural disaster monuments.
- Added a button to reset the map view after panning or zooming.
v1.1.0Aug 1, 2026
- Made the searched-location marker and shelter markers easier to distinguish by shape and color.
- Added the ability to expand the map on desktop.
- Added a button to call emergency contacts directly.
v1.0.0Jul 31, 2026
- Officially launched as "Sokoshira" at sokoshira.com.
Earlier development-only records (before v1.0.0) are kept only in internal development records and are not listed here.
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Operated by:
BRIDGE ／ Last updated: August 5, 2026
