What is the difference between an evacuation site and an evacuation shelter in Japan?

Two kinds of place

• Designated emergency evacuation site (shitei kinkyū hinan basho): go right now. Designated per hazard, because a good place in an earthquake can be a bad one in a tsunami.
• Designated evacuation shelter (shitei hinanjo): a place to stay after a disaster. Schools, gymnasiums, community centers.

Japan Disaster Guide maps 115,000+ designated sites from the national dataset, sorted by distance, with walking directions. Check which hazard a site is designated for before you head there.

Visitors

Shelters are opened by the municipality for anyone in the area who needs them. Tokyo also runs temporary shelters for stranded persons, facilities that can accept stranded persons who have nowhere to go, usually for a period of three days, equipped with enough drinking water and food to last for three days, portable toilets, and other supplies.

Pets

The Ministry of the Environment's policy is dōkō hinan, evacuating together with your pet, and it asks owners to get the animal used to a carrier and to bring enough water, food and regular medicine. Whether the animal can come inside the building is decided by each municipality and shelter; the ministry's advice is to check in advance. Ask at reception, and keep the animal in its carrier.

The one rule

Imminent danger: evacuation site for that hazard. Nowhere to stay: evacuation shelter.