Tokyo, May 2 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Foreign Ministry plans to set up a mobile team that will help Japanese expatriates return home if an infectious disease breaks out or a terrorist attack occurs overseas, informed sources have said.

The move is based on lessons learned from the experience of evacuating Japanese nationals from Wuhan, China, the initial epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak.

The ministry will stockpile necessary supplies, including medical goods and protective suits, as well as build a system that will allow the government to swiftly send employees with knowledge of the affected region and fluent in the area’s language in the time of an emergency.

In the recent evacuation efforts, the Japanese government sent five chartered planes to the capital city of the inland China province of Hubei between January and February to take 828 Japanese nationals and their family members back to Japan.

During the operations, the ministry sent employees working at the Japanese embassy in Beijing to Wuhan by land.