The Indonesian government is collaborating with Japan to develop mosque loudspeakers as part of an earthquake early warning system—a concrete measure to mitigate damage and reduce disaster risks caused by the tremors that frequently strike the Indonesian archipelago.
Indonesia aims to conduct trials of this earthquake early warning system in Jakarta and several other regions by 2030, prior to its nationwide implementation. In undertaking this strategic project, Indonesia is receiving support from Japan, a country with experience in deploying similar systems. Furthermore, like Japan, Indonesia is situated along the Pacific Ring of Fire.
A joint Indonesian-Japanese team has been established with support from the Japanese government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme. This research team began its work in 2025 across three provinces in western Java, including the Jakarta area, as part of a five-year pilot project.
The idea is that, in addition to relying on radio wave communication, local mosques will be used to disseminate earthquake early warning information to the general public. Signals and hazard alerts will be broadcast through mosque loudspeakers typically used for the call to prayer. This cultural approach is considered highly strategic, given that Muslims make up approximately 90% of Indonesia’s total population.
Speaking to the British daily newspaper The Guardian in an article published on Monday, 12th of October, Dr Inoue Hiroshi, the project lead from Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute in Japan, described the pilot scheme as an idea initially conceived nearly 20 years ago during research into deadly earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia. Inoue is now collaborating with the Indonesian government to evaluate the possibility of implementing an early warning system similar to Japan’s.
“I thought if Indonesia had the same service and people received the warning before the shaking came, then many people among those few hundred wouldn’t have died,” he said, referring to the devastating 2009 earthquake in western Sumatra, which killed at least 1,000 people.
The use of mosque loudspeakers as part of an early warning system has previously been implemented elsewhere. For instance, this year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Uzbekistan, introduced an innovative technical solution for transmitting emergency messages. The system includes special alert broadcast devices installed in mosques near populated areas across the country. As of 24 March 2026, such devices had been installed in 272 mosques across seven regions of Uzbekistan.