GATARI Realizes Flood Training That Transforms "Everyday Spaces" into Disaster Sites with Sound: Approximately 80% of Trainees Experience the Realism of Flooding, Immersive Active Learning Generates Desire for Repetition

In March 2026, GATARI Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Shunichi Takeshita; hereinafter "GATARI"), as part of Tokyo's "King Salmon Project," conducted flood disaster training at two elderly care facilities in Katsushika Ward, which are at risk of floor submersion during floods, using the Mixed Reality (MR) platform "Auris."

GATARI has previously implemented "Disaster Prevention Quests" with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Urban Development, offering experiential learning on disaster prevention, liquefaction countermeasures, and building earthquake resistance. Following these efforts, this time GATARI designed and implemented flood disaster training as "Immersive Active Learning" involving role-playing, recreating floor submersion scenarios with "Auris."

*Immersive Active Learning: An educational method using digital technology where learners deeply immerse themselves in the worldview of a virtual space and learn proactively by moving their bodies.

*Mixed Reality (MR): A technology that allows users to experience digital information overlaid onto the real world.

■ Structural Reasons Why Flood Training at Welfare Facilities Remains "Desk-Based Confirmation"

For residential elderly care facilities, the facility is a living space for users and a workplace for staff who support their daily lives.

At these facilities, where initial flood response and resident care must be judged and executed simultaneously by a limited number of staff, conducting practical flood training has been difficult due to the following two challenges:

Challenge 1: Compared to fires and earthquakes, it is difficult to visualize the situation during a flood disaster.

Challenge 2: Training remains limited to confirming evacuation routes on paper, preventing the accumulation of actionable know-how for emergencies.

According to Katsushika Ward's hazard map, flooding of 0.1m to 0.5m in some areas and 3.0m to 5.0m in others is anticipated in the Naka River and Ayase River basin. This means that welfare facilities located in high-risk flood areas require practical training, yet structural constraints on-site hinder such training.

Flood response at these facilities is primarily conducted in two stages. GATARI designed the flood training focusing on the first stage: "Initial response to flooding (protection of equipment and environment)."

■ A Non-Fixed Training Design Created by Two Interlocking Elements

For this training, GATARI developed the program based on the following design philosophy to address the two challenges of flood training in welfare facilities:

・Designing an environment where sound gives realism to the hard-to-imagine flood, allowing trainees to judge "what is happening now" through sound.

・Establishing a series of processes where knowledge is learned by the body through a design where one's own actions advance the scenario.

Spatial audio was created, including rain sounds that intensify over time and real-time changes in the sound of water being pushed aside with each step down the hallway. This transformed the familiar facility corridor into a space where a flood is occurring. The sounds prompted actions like walking, turning, and crouching, and the cycle of actions advancing the training scenario allowed trainees to engage with a sense of ownership.

Auris Editor Screen: The smartphone camera with Auris installed captures the space, overlaying sounds and audio onto the facility.

■ The "Places to Protect" Revealed Through Sound and Action

In the actual training, participants worked on tasks necessary for the first stage, "Initial response to flooding (protection of equipment and environment)," such as confirming flood routes, flood countermeasures, and food supplies.

Groups of three people walked through the first and second floors of the facility, following Auris's instructions and the real-time changing sounds. Using worksheets, they performed a series of steps from understanding the weather situation to confirming flood routes and reporting to the leader.

Scene heading to check the back door.
As they approached the door, Auris played the sound of strong wind from outside. One staff member verbally confirmed the action of closing the door. It was the moment when the back door at the end of the familiar hallway began to appear as a "place to protect."

A particularly impressive scene involved responding to toilet backflow.
During a flood, sewage can back up and overflow from toilets, requiring a water-filled sandbag to cover the toilet. The moment a staff member crouched down, a narration explaining how to handle the sandbag was heard: "There is a risk of sewage backflow. If it is backflowing, fill this bag with water to make a sandbag and cover the toilet..." Staff members exclaimed "I didn't know that" and crouched down to mimic the action of picking up a sandbag, confirming the procedure. It was a moment when knowledge written in the manual became their own through physical action.

After the training, spontaneous conversations among staff members turned to the next challenges: "We need to establish a clear chain of command with a leader," "We can't evacuate without first confirming the location of residents," "We need to be aware of what to do and in what order during a disaster." The fact that they began to organize their facility's issues in their own words showed that the Auris training had increased the resolution of their flood image and facilitated the accumulation of physical know-how.

Trainees working with Auris, listening to instructions and sound effects.

■ Approximately 80% of Trainees "Experienced Fear and Realism": Psychological Realism and Desire for Repetition Unattainable by Desk-Based Training

According to a post-training survey and interviews with participating staff and facility managers, approximately 80% of trainees reported that they "experienced fear and realism," and multiple participants expressed a desire to "experience it again." Two changes not seen in desk-based training were confirmed: "acquisition of psychological realism regarding floods" and "motivation for repetition."

Image of Flooding

Three-quarters of trainees reported "experiencing fear and realism," and half of those felt "anxiety close to the real thing." This suggests that the combination of sound and action created psychological realism for the flood, which is typically considered "difficult to imagine."

Accumulation of Know-how

Multiple participants expressed a desire to "experience it again as it was the first training." This reaction, not seen in desk-based training, could be the starting point of a cycle where response capabilities accumulate through repetition, going beyond simply acquiring the desire for repetition.

Willingness to Participate in Training

The facility's disaster prevention manager reported that "this initiative improved staff participation rates in training." A secondary effect of stimulating interest in the training itself was also confirmed.

■ Expanding "Immersive Active Learning" to Schools, Companies, and Government Agencies

Although conducted in groups this time, this training can be performed individually with the Auris app and earphones. Even in facilities operating 24/7, staff can repeatedly train in their own time between shifts, and it can accommodate staff turnover.

Furthermore, this "Immersive Active Learning" can be expanded to areas beyond welfare facilities, such as:

・Training for children to learn about disasters physically in elementary school classrooms

・Community-based disaster prevention programs in collaboration with local governments

・Hospitals, commercial facilities, offices, etc.

Training transforms from a task of following instructions to an experience where the body moves naturally.
GATARI will continue to overlay sound onto various real-world spaces, building disaster response capabilities through training that gets the body moving.