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This paper assesses mobile alert and warning in the United States and Japan by confronting the challenges of international harmonization. A U.S.-Japan expert workshop on mobile alert and warning was held online 8–10 September 2021. Funded by the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership (CGP) and responding to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the workshop compared U.S. and Japanese mobile alert and warning contexts, systems, policies, and messages to investigate possibilities for international harmonization of mobile device-based early warning. The workshop’s sessions revealed two interrelated issues that repeatedly surfaced among workshop participants: culture and policy. The workshop illuminated several possibilities and problems confronting U.S., Japanese, and global stakeholders as they develop, deploy, and seek to improve the effectiveness of mobile alert and warning systems and messages.

The paper assesses three areas:

1. U.S.-Japan workshop background;
2. International harmonization: Moving from speculation to investigation; and
3. U.S.-Japan research collaboration to improve mobile alert and warning globally.