The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to establish a multilingual call center in fiscal 2015 to enable Japanese tourism businesses to provide interpretation in English, Chinese and Korean to prepare for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
"The plan is part of an effort to remove language barriers so foreign tourists can stay and travel without trouble," an official in the metropolitan government said Thursday. "The service will be introduced largely to prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games."
The service, which will be outsourced, is expected to be free to use by hotels, restaurants and cab drivers, the official said. It allows employees to contact interpreters 24 hours a day for help in the three languages.
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