Three languages have been added to a multilingual telephone tourist information service that will be launched later this month for visitors to the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Tuesday.
Call centers will be set up in Sapporo, Miyagi, Niigata, Saitama, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Shizuoka, Osaka, Kobe and Oita.
Staff will answer calls in English to offer information to non-Japanese speakers.
The telephone numbers are: Sapporo, (011) 251-2261; Miyagi, (022) 713-4441; Niigata, (025) 287-9831; Saitama, (048) 601-1150; Ibaraki, (0299) 84-7755; Yokohama, (045) 471-2400; Shizuoka, (054) 254-5650; Osaka, (06) 4799-2019; Kobe, (078) 392-0801; and Oita, (097) 514-3833.
The starting day of the service varies from center to center, but English service will be available at least from Friday to July 1 at all 10 centers, ministry officials said.
For the other nine languages -- Spanish, French, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic -- calls will be transferred to a central help center in Tokyo.
The ministry also released a list of 119 local tourist information centers with English-speaking assistants that can be found at the Japan National Tourist Organization's Web site: www.jnto.go.jp/.