Wi-Fi Access and Language Issues Most Inconvenient Aspects for Visitors to Japan

Good Luck Trip, a travel information site operated by Arukikata and aimed at overseas visitors to Japan, asked 891 of its users about issues or inconveniences they had experienced when traveling in Japan. The most common answer with 31.5% was “Wi-Fi access,” something that Japanese people can well understand too. This was followed by linguistic problems, as 20.2% had difficulty “communicating with facility staff” and 17.5% were hindered by the “lack of multilingual signage.”

Concerning the problem of “communicating with facility staff,” respondents were asked how they make a reservation at a restaurant in Japan, to which the most common answer, with 36.7%, was that they “go straight there without making one.” Others mainly said “online booking” and “ask someone who can speak Japanese,” while only 10.5% responded that they phone the restaurant themselves.

Arukikata points out that “while improvements are being made to make Japan more welcoming for foreign tourists, there needs to be more development of infrastructure, such as Wi-Fi access and reassessment of how to convey multilingual information to the various visitors.” The survey was conducted online from early to mid-May, with responses received from 106 people from countries using English, 102 from countries using Korean, 103 from those using simplified Chinese, and 580 from those using traditional Chinese.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)