The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry plans to review the highly competitive certification exams for professional foreign-language guides in a bid to boost the number of certified guides available to tourists, officials said Saturday.

The total number of licensed foreign-language guides totaled 9,051 at the end of 2003. In fiscal 2003, only 331, or 5.3 percent, of 6,300 applicants passed the licensing exams administered by the ministry.

The ministry, which oversees the tourism industry, plans to submit legislation to amend the law regulating certified guides to the Diet this session and put the legislation into force in April 2006, according to the officials.