A tourism organization in the Tohoku region has published a handbook featuring conversational phrases in four languages ahead of the anticipated tourist influx during the World Cup soccer finals.
The organization, which has its headquarters in the Tohoku Economic Federation, said Thursday it has published a 103-page handbook featuring everyday phrases in Japanese, English, South Korean and Chinese.
The body is made up of local governments and private firms in Niigata, Fukushima, Yamagata, Akita, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori prefectures.
"We hope that foreigners will find them useful," an organization official said. "We've printed about 30,000 copies and have started distributing them at stations, hotels and public facilities."
Each page of the handbook has two to four multilingual phrases to cover various situations -- such as shopping and eating at restaurants -- along with a vocabulary list at the end of each section.
Miyagi and Niigata will both host World Cup soccer games, which start in Japan on May 31.
Sendai will be the venue for the Junior Chamber International Asia Pacific Area Conference, which will be held from May 16 to 20.