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Japan's tourism office to analyze tweets from foreigners

Traveling throughout Japan and have a beef about the country's public transportation or tourist services? Air your complaint over on Twitter and odds are it will be heard.

According to a report out of Japan News, the country’s tourism office has launched a new program that will analyze tweets made by foreign tourists to help improve visitor services and make the country a more attractive travel destination.

The tourism strategy is being developed in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when the Japanese capital will become the center of the world over the summer and play host to hundreds of thousands of overseas visitors.

Positive tweets about a particular onsen (or hot spring), for example, could result in more English signboards, while critical tweets about the country’s public transportation system for foreigners would be used to make improvements.

Already the country has embarked on a major signage and translation campaign in an effort to make it easier for English speakers to navigate the country.

In response to visitor complaints of poor, inconsistent or the complete absence of translations, the Japanese government has made it mandatory for signs to include English words for important reference points.

Words like station, airport, city hall, hospital and river, for example, will be written out in English.