Signs of the times: street, building markers get English names

by Masaaki Kameda

Staff Writer

Foreign tourists should have an easier time identifying the seat of government in Tokyo when the current sign, “Kokkai,” is pulled down and replaced with “The National Diet,” officials said Tuesday.

In all, 13 street signs will be replaced, including changing “Sorikantei” to “Prime Minister’s Office” and “Sakurada dori” to “Sakurada-dori Ave.”

“Japan aims to be a tourism-oriented country, so together with relevant bodies, we decided to make these replacements to make the nation more foreigner-friendly,” said Hiroshi Mochizuki, a section chief at the Tokyo government’s construction bureau.

The Japanese on three signs will also be changed to make it easier for visitors to comprehend.

“Sangiin tsuyomon” (entrance to the House of Councilors building) will be changed to “Kokkaitoshokan mae,” accompanied by the English name “National Diet Library.” The west entrance to the Upper House building, identified as “Councilors Office” in English and now called “Sangiin nishi tsuyomon,” will become “Sangiinkaikan mae.”

And the current sign “Kokkai ura” (the back of the Diet building) will be replaced with one that says “Shugiinkaikan mae” and “Representatives Office.”

Shinichi Takinami, a deputy director at the Tokyo National Road Office at the transport ministry, said the ministry, which concentrated on sidewalk signs, decided this time to change the language on street signs on a trial basis following discussions at a council with members also from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Metro Co. and Chiyoda Ward.

The area surrounding the Diet building was chosen for the trial because of the many street signs showing the locations of government buildings and other facilities, according to Takinami. He also noted the nearby Imperial Palace attracts many foreign tourists.

A 1986 revision to a ministry ordinance on road signs stipulates the signs should be written in Roman letters, along with Japanese, for non-Japanese visitors, according to Takinami.

Eight new signs on national roads should be up by Wednesday morning, according to Takinami. Five signs on metropolitan roads will be replaced by the end of December, said Mochizuki of the metro construction bureau.

Takinami said the ministry hopes to improve road signs nationwide, particularly in regions popular with foreign tourists, after studying the results of the trial.

  • JeanPaulJ

    Not only should the road/address numbering system be completely overhauled, as you rightly suggested, but a few more reforms should be implemented to make life easier for tourists:

    1 . Create a national railway and bus ticketing system, as is the case in Switzerland. This kind of system already exists within the JR Group, which allows for effortless travel between the various parts of the network. This should be extended to include private railway lines. So, for instance, if I wanted to travel from Tokyo to Senzu (Shizuoka Pref), I would be able to purchase one ticket for the entire journey – for the Shinkansen to Hamamatsu, for the JR Local to Kanaya and then for the (private) Ooigawa Line to Senzu. Simple, effortless travel right there! Now some of you will, rightly, point out that SUICA, PASMO, PASPY and other related systems are becoming more widely accepted across all of Japan, but the average tourist cannot make use of these services as they lack a Japanese credit card/bank account, which brings me on to point 2

    2. Encourage financial institutions (I’m looking at you, Mizuho!) to accept foreign cards in their ATMs. The current dependence that many tourists have on 7Bank and JPost Bank is unhealthy for competition and makes it especially difficult for visitors if an institution chooses to block a certain card type, as 7Bank did with MasterCard following a spat over rates/fees. Alternatively, mightn’t businesses wish to consider implementing a cash back system (this could also, I presume, apply to transactions using SUICA et al)?

  • tau_neutrino

    If the tourist is already at the sign, there’s no need to take him anywhere. If he’s giving an address, presumably he already has it in romanji.

    • Kirk Masden

      Don’t sign’s and maps go together? If you are going to change signs, you need to make sure that the maps show the corresponding names. If the maps list English place names, the problems Miura_Anjin points to will probably occur. If not, more confusion. Another point is that, in addition to taxi drivers, if you are searching for a place on foot, you may need to ask people on the street as well. Good luck getting ordinary people to understand you if you can only identify a place with an English name. Finally, the romaji serves also to indicate the readings for the kanji. This is undoubtably useful information for people from countries that use kanji but pronounce them differently. This “improvement” sounds like a step back for many.

  • Qìdàn Ānándé

    I believe we already have a national-neutral lingua franca. It is called Esperanto (エスペラント語). Pity, no more than a couple of million people speak it.

    (Mi pensas ke jam ekzistas nacio-neŭtrala komuna lingvo. Oni ĝin nomas kiel Esperanto. Bedaŭrinde, malpli ol du milionoj personoj parolas ĝin.)

  • Earl Kinmonth

    Given that tourists to Japan as well as the foreign residents of Japan are overwhelmingly Chinese followed by Koreans, the push on English seems wasted effort and money. If you look at the signs on the private Keikyu Line, you’ll see that they know who butters their bread. It’s not the people from Anglophone countries.

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