Welcome to Japan: Handy Services for Foreign Tourists

The government is stepping up its efforts to expedite inbound tourism and a lot more foreigners find it easy and comfortable to tour in Japan.

Today's episode will show those of you who are planning to travel this part of the world how it is so much easier now to land and tour in Japan. Skim it through and do count Japan in your travel plan.

Starting November 21, the City of Nagoya will make available free WiFi in the city's trunk subways for easier mobility and ready tourism information in town. Tourists need simply feed mail addresses in smartphone or register information via SNS.

Each connection is good for 30 minutes and you can connect as often as you wish. The City of Nagoya plans now to extend this free WiFi network to hotels and tourist facilities to encourage more foreign tourists to visit Nagoya.

The Central Nippon Expressway Company sells open bus tickets for foreign tourists they can use any number of times and now extends the service to Kyoto with effect from November 1, according to President Katsuto Miyaike. Customers can choose any length of time from two days to two weeks for 5-16000 yen. the tickets are available at any rent-a-car store in Aichi, Gifu and Shizuoka prefectures.

In Tottori Prefecture, a new smartphone media is being tested for visiting foreigners to communicate with taxi drivers in English, Chinese or Korean. KDDI is leading the project on commission by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications with eyes on the Olympics in 2020. The local taxis in Tottori have a hard lesson learned from an experience some years ago when they offered a taxi coupon for foreign tourists good for three hours for 1,000 yen per customer. Only 3,600 visitors availed themselves of the service. Again, language proves to be the major barrier.

Elsewhere in the country, Onomichi now offers an express shuttle bus direct to Hiroshima Airport in Mihara. Hiroshima has direct flights to Taipei and Hong Kong.