2 Years to Go: Transport Providers Gearing Up for Tokyo Games

July 25, 2018

Tokyo- Transport operators are busy preparing for an expected increase in visitors from abroad during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, with some accelerating the installation of equipment to show information in multiple languages and others eager to attract demand from such foreign guests.

East Japan Railway Co. or JR East, and Keisei Electric Railway Co. both of which operate trains linking central Tokyo and Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, adjacent to the Japanese capital, have replaced their conventional station signboards capable of notifying passengers of train delays, disruptions and other information related to their services only in Japanese and English with those that can display information in the two languages plus Chinese and Korean.

At all stations of Keikyu Corp. which offers train services to and from Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, tablet computers designed for use by station staff to provide train transfer and other information to foreigners in any of the same four languages have been introduced.

Narita International Airport Corp., the operator of the airport that is one of the main gateways to Japan, plans to mobilize an army of volunteers to guide Olympians and Paralympians when they arrive in Japan for the Tokyo Games and fly back after the quadrennial sporting events.

Providing foreigners with necessary information in times of emergencies, such as terrorist attacks and disasters, is also an important task for public transport operators. JR East has put into practical use an onboard system to communicate voice information in English to passengers when something unexpected happens, with a total of some 4,700 alert and other messages prepared for broadcast.

Tokyo Metro Co. has started to distribute to its facilities a megaphone that translates sentences spoken in Japanese into several foreign languages.

Transport providers are also facing the challenge of offering sufficient services, especially late at night, for spectators getting back from Olympic and Paralympic competition venues.

"We've begun to study how we should operate our services after midnight," JR East President Yuji Fukasawa has said.

Meanwhile, Tokyo-based taxi operator Hinomaru Kotsu Co. is trying to increase the number of its foreign drivers to improve the convenience of visitors from abroad and boost demand from them.

The company, which currently has a total of 25 foreign drivers, from countries including China, South Korea and Brazil, aims to increase the number to 100 by the start of the Olympics.

"Our foreign drivers are well received," a Hinomaru Kotsu official said. "Foreign customers have told us that they felt at ease as they were served by drivers from their home countries."

The Olympics and Paralympics will also provide a good business opportunity to airlines.

ANA Holdings Inc. is set to merge its two affiliated low-cost carriers to expand its flight network.

"We hope to lure foreigners who will visit Japan to both watch the games and enjoy sightseeing," said an official at one of the two ANA group LCCs.

Japan Airlines which plans to set up a new LCC, is speeding up work to decide destinations for the new carrier, with Southeast Asian nations, such as Singapore and Thailand, among the candidates. Jiji Press