Feature Article

Support for the English Needs in a
Small Japanese Port Town

Kazumi Kato
Tokai University
Wendy M. Gough
Tokai University
In 2013, the Active Local Tokai Ambassadors (ATLAS) English Club was started at
Tokai University’s Shimizu, Shizuoka campus with the aim of helping students improvetheir English and social skills. The students participate in projects supporting the English
language needs in Shimizu. They work with the town office, port authority, and local citizen
volunteers to provide assistance to passengers from foreign luxury liners stopping at Shimizu
port. The ATLAS English Club advisers noticed problems that stemmed from the lack oflanguage skills and information about the locality among the students and volunteers. This
resulted in difficulty providing help to the passengers. In 2016, the ATLAS English Club
advisers held a seminar for local citizens and volunteers, and surveyed the audience about
the types of English expressions they felt they needed to learn to help the international
visitors. Then, they made recommendations to the town office and created an interpreters’
guidebook to assist the volunteers who help at the port area. This paper introduces theTokai University ATLAS English Club and local English support for international tourism
in Shimizu, Shizuoka, Japan, and then outlines the first stage of the project to create bettersupport for the English volunteer community in Shimizu.

Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese government has recognized
the potential for international tourism to improve local economies and is
implementing methods to promote Japan as an international tourist destination(Osumi, 2016). Japanese scholars and business groups have also been aware of thegrowing popularity of Japanese pop culture products abroad since the early 2000s
130Support for the English Needs, OnCUE Journal, 10(2), pages 130-141(Mandujano, 2013) and more recently, the Cool Japan policy has been adopted inan effort to foster a positive international image and increase tourism. Cool Japanadvances an image to people in foreign countries that Japan is a cool place to visit
not only because of its rich culture, but also due to the growing appreciation of
popular culture products such as anime and manga (Mandujano, 2013). CoolJapan also provides opportunities for communities, such as small port towns,
to promote themselves as more groups of international tourists come to Japanfor port calls on luxury liners. Because these towns, such as Shimizu, Shizuoka,
do not have the financial means to provide professional English support, theylook for local residents and students with English skills to volunteer. This paper
introduces a university English club called the Active Tokai Local Ambassadors(ATLAS) English Club, as well as local citizen volunteer activities that provide
English language help for international luxury liner passengers and the first halfof a project to research and develop support for the students and local citizen
volunteers to improve their English skills.

Luxury Liner Tourism

The international luxury liner industry is taking advantage of Japan’s efforts topromote foreign tourism. According to Maarit Aartoaho, a Japanese tour agent
for the Princess Cruises Company, interviewed in Hakodate, Japan:
Luxury liner companies are also taking advantage of the cheap airfares fromabroad. They are promoting cruises as an inexpensive and trouble-free way
to see Japan without the burden of language barriers. Being able to fly into
Japan cheaply then board a ship with English-speaking staff benefits tourists
who want to visit Japan as well as local port communities, which are often insmall Japanese towns. Passengers can fly into a major metropolitan airport,
spend a few days sightseeing then board a luxury liner. From there, the ship
sails to several smaller Japanese ports before moving on to Korea or anothernearby Asian destination. The ships offer chances for passengers to disembark
at the small ports and take day trips on tour buses arranged by the ship’s
tour company to local spots of interest. Passengers can also opt to see small
131

Kato & Goughtown Japan by wandering through the local area by themselves (personalcommunication, June 30, 2016).
International passenger ships stopping in small port towns provide the towns
with the opportunity to show tourists local sights that are vastly different fromwhat the tourists typically encounter in big cities such as Tokyo or Osaka. It also
helps boost the local economies of the small port towns by providing businessto local tour and taxi companies and by visitors patronizing local shops andrestaurants.

Shimizu Port Tourism and Tokai University

In 2014, ten luxury liners carrying international passengers stopped at Shimizu
Port in Shizuoka city and the number is increasing year by year. To support thepassengers when they disembark from the ships, the Shimizu Town Office andthe Shimizu Port Authority provide an information table with maps of the local
area in several languages. Local shop owners, taxi companies, a bank, and thepost office also set up booths at the portside that sell local products and provide
services. Free Wi-Fi access, tea ceremony demonstrations, and trying on kimono
can also be done inside the port terminal building. Since the local people who set
up their shops and services at the portside do not have strong English language
skills, the town office and port authority recruit local citizens to volunteer as
English interpreters for the passengers through advertising in local newsletters.
The ATLAS English Club from Tokai University also takes part in volunteer
interpreting activities when the ships come to the port.

ATLAS English Club

Students at Tokai University Shimizu Campus major in marine sciences andtechnology, but some students are interested in learning English and practicing
their English communication skills in real-life contexts. To support these students
the ATLAS English Club was established in 2013. Following that, the Shizuoka
City Association for Multicultural Exchange (SAME) office at the Shimizu Town
Office was contacted by the ATLAS English Club advisers in 2014. Discussions
between the ATLAS English Club advisors and the Shimizu Town Office began,132

Support for the English Needs, OnCUE Journal, 10(2), pages 130-141

leading to cooperation with the Shimizu Port Authority, and in October 2014
several students began to volunteer as portside interpreters when the international
luxury liners made port calls in Shimizu (Gough & Kato, 2016). Consequently,
the students also began developing original projects to support the luxury liner
passengers. They received a Challenge Center Grant for Student Projects from
Tokai University and created an English language map detailing how to take thecity bus to the Miho no Matsubara seaside woods, part of the Mount Fuji World
Heritage Site (Gough & Kato, 2016). Later, they developed student-led tours to
Miho no Matsubara, as well as Minowa Inari, a well-known shrine near the port.

Port Activities

In the first two years of the student volunteer activities, the two ATLAS English
Club advisers accompanied the students during volunteer activities to provide
support. During this time, the advisers observed of the portside activities when
the international ships arrived and identified some areas where the services could
be improved. For example, while the town’s services for the passengers expanded
over time, the town officials and volunteers did not have a clear idea of thepassengers’ needs or what English skills were necessary. One reason for this is thatthe passenger demographics change depending on the luxury liner company. This
results in differing English support needs depending on which ship makes a port
call. For example, passengers on some ship lines tend to be older and wealthierand use taxi services or take bus tours pre-arranged by the ship’s travel company.
These passengers do not need the local volunteer interpreters’ services, but areinterested in the Wi-Fi access when they return to the port. Other luxury liners
tend to appeal to younger, middle class passengers who often travel with theirfamilies. These passengers are more interested in walking around the town or
taking public transportation to see the local sights. They ask for directions to the
local shopping spots and have questions about local sites and famous products. The
volunteers at Shimizu Port are not trained and do not understand the differencesin needs among passengers depending on the type of ship they arrived on. The
ATLAS English Club advisers noticed that the volunteers were not familiar withbus timetables and routes, nor with the shops at the portside shopping mall and133

Kato & Goughsurrounding neighborhood. Also, the ATLAS English Club students are notfrom the Shimizu area and do not have much knowledge about the local history
and sightseeing spots. As a result, there was sometimes a mismatch between
passenger needs, the English services, and volunteers’ knowledge of the local area.
The ATLAS English Club advisers also observed some discrepancies between
the expectations of the local citizen volunteers and the student volunteers. One
local citizen volunteer enjoys giving long explanations of details about the local
history or famous places to people who are unfamiliar with the Shimizu area.
This shows his pride in the local area but does not consider the visitors’ needs.
Passengers disembarking from the ship tend to want specific information abouttransportation, Wi-Fi services, or places to visit and they want the information
in a timely fashion. In general, they are not interested in spending a lot of time
listening to a historical description of the area. Other local citizen volunteers
are simply eager to enjoy the experience of interacting with people from aroundthe world and showing the passengers aspects of Japanese culture: for example,
experiencing tea ceremony, teaching how to do origami, or trying on kimono. On
the other hand, the students are mainly interested in developing their language
skills and designing original projects, such as the map or tours that involve using
English to assist the passengers. They are also interested in providing helpful
information such as how-to login to the free Wi-Fi service, how to exchangemoney at the bank, or how to get to the shopping center nearby the port. Thus,
while the town, volunteers, and students are eager to provide English services
for the visiting luxury liner passengers at Shimizu Port, there is also a mismatch
concerning the aims and expectations of the volunteers from the various groups.

Developing English Support for Shimizu Port

From their observations, the ATLAS English Club advisers realized more English
support is needed and decided to create a research project to help Shimizu better
serve the English needs of visiting international passengers at the port. This
research project began in the 2016 school year and will expand in future years as
the ATLAS English Club advisers continue to work with the Shimizu office, thelocal citizen volunteers, and the ATLAS English Club students. The aims of the134Support for the English Needs, OnCUE Journal, 10(2), pages 130-141

2016 community outreach research project for international luxury liner tourism
in the town of Shimizu was to understand what kind of support can be given
to local citizen and student volunteers who help at the port when international
luxury liners arrive. The project also aims to help them develop their skills to be
successful volunteer interpreters. The project had two parts. The first part was
to research the kinds of English language support offered to passengers at otherports and understand English language needs of the two volunteer groups in
Shimizu. The second part of the project will be to produce a volunteer interpreter
handbook after an analysis of observations, meetings with the local port authority,and conducting a Shimizu volunteer survey (see Appendixes A & B) at a seminarpresented to local citizens and volunteers at the Shimizu Town Office.

MethodJune 2016. Preliminary research was conducted in Hakodate, Hokkaido in June
2016. Hakodate was chosen because international passenger ships have been
stopping there for about ten years and students from a local high school volunteer
to help the passengers. The high school students received an award for theiractivities from the Japanese Tourism Board in 2015, so the ATLAS English Club
advisers wanted to investigate the students’ activities to learn about hospitalitythat can be applied to Shimizu port. When they visited Hakodate, they observed
portside activities when the Diamond Princess ship made its port call because the
Diamond Princess also makes port calls at Shimizu port. The ATLAS English
Club advisers also interviewed a Japanese Princess Cruise Liner travel agent, port
officials, and an English teacher from the high school about their activities when
the ships make port calls.
The ATLAS English Club advisers first noted several differences between
the conditions in Hakodate port and Shimizu port. First, Shimizu port is close
to the town center, shopping, and the local train lines, but Hakodate port is far
from the town center. Therefore, free shuttle busses are provided by Hakodate
town to help the passengers get to the downtown area and local places ofinterest. Another difference was the number and type of booths on the dockside
at Hakodate. Since Hakodate is an established port town with a booming tourist
135

Kato & Goughindustry in the downtown area, there were fewer booths on the dockside thanat Shimizu. In Hakodate, there was a ramen noodle truck, one or two local
shop booths, and an information booth. On the other hand, in Shimizu there
are typically more than ten such booths, a bank with currency exchange, a post
office, and free Wi-Fi service.
Finally, the high school students’ activities were quite different from theactivities the Tokai University students engage in. The high school students in
Hakodate mostly provided a warm welcome to the passengers through a dance
activity and handmade origami, and gave basic information using local maps.
The students took visitors on a tour of their high school on occasion, but it wasorganized by the school administration, unlike the ATLAS English Club tours,
which are student-organized. Observations of transportation, restaurants, maps,
and road signs around Hakodate town showed it to be a place with substantial
support for people who are unfamiliar with the Japanese language. For example,
city buses had simple, graphic signage accompanied by English explanations to
explain how to pay the bus fare, restaurants had picture menus with the menu
items names spelled out in roman letters, and local maps and road signs included
the names of places and travel routes in roman letters or English.
September 2016. The second part of the research took place in theuniversity’s 2016 summer break, which fell between early August and late
September. The ATLAS English Club advisers prepared a seminar for the
Shimizu town office and local citizens who were interested in the international
luxury liners and portside activities when the ships arrive. The seminar beganwith a presentation to discuss the ATLAS English Club advisers’ research aims.
Next, they reported on Hakodate’s port side hospitality and local support forinternational tourists. After that, they led an hour-long group discussion about
the audience members’ experiences or perceptions of possible language issues
involved with volunteering. Finally, the ATLAS English Club advisers conducteda volunteer needs analysis by surveying the participants (Appendix A). From thevolunteer needs analysis, they found the Shimizu town office and port authority
did not make their expectations clear to the local citizen volunteers and thevolunteers were confused about what they should do to help passengers. The
136

Support for the English Needs, OnCUE Journal, 10(2), pages 130-141

ATLAS English Club advisers further found that the volunteers wanted to know
in advance what the town office and port authority expect of them. The local
citizen volunteers also wanted more information about international passengers’
needs and how to prepare for using English to meet the specific purposes of
helping them.
December 2016. The ATLAS English Club advisers began to develop avolunteer interpreter handbook. As a first step, they asked ATLAS English Club
students to enter the survey information into Google docs. Then, after data entry
was completed they planned to categorize the information into eight categories
according to topic before translating, organizing the guidebook contents, andsending it to a printing company. Developing and testing the handbook with thelocal volunteers will be the second step of this stage of the project.

Conclusion

This research project will continue as Shimizu continues to promote itself as adestination for international luxury liners, and recruits volunteers to support
the English needs of the community and the visiting passengers. The handbook
will include useful information and expressions such as for giving directions andexplanations on how to use public transportation, as well as useful vocabulary
for chatting with the passengers. There will be a print version of the handbook
and a PDF version that can be downloaded from the Tokai University Shimizu
Campus homepage. In addition to the volunteer handbook, the ATLAS English
Club advisers will develop future training seminars to explain passengers’ needs,
discuss the town office and port authority expectations for volunteer interpreters,
and to teach useful English for helping passengers.
In 2017, the ATLAS English Club advisers plan to teach an elective
English communication class that focuses on a project to create a visitors’ tour
guidebook, with several theme-based tour routes explained in English. For thisproject, the English communication class students will research and make mini
tours to unique local places. These tours will be compiled into a print, PDF, andi-Book tour guidebook that local citizen and ATLAS English Club volunteers
can use to provide helpful information to international luxury liner passengers
137Kato & Gough

visiting Shimizu port.
The international tourism industry in Japan is expected to continue growing
ahead of the Olympics and beyond 2020. Since small towns cannot afford topay professional interpreters to help with international tourism, they will needto rely on local volunteers to support their foreign language needs. The Tokai
University ATLAS English Club advisers’ research and community outreachactivities in Shimizu can serve as a model for other small Japanese communities
that hope to encourage international tourism. It is an example of the creationof a successful relationship between the Shimizu town office and the local
university. The example and model presented in this paper can be adapted byother university professors and English groups in Japan who wish to establish arelationship with their local community and provide support for local English
needs.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a To-Collabo Grant from Tokai University and theJapanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT)
projects under the University Reform Action Plan.

References

Gough, W. M., & Kato, K. (2016). Community outreach and autonomous
learning. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on thelearner. Tokyo, Japan: JALT.
Mandujano, Y. (2013). The politics of selling culture and branding the nationalin contemporary Japan: Economic goals, soft-power and reinforcement of
the national pride. Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies, 5(9), 31-41.
Osumi, M. (2016, August 19). Dentsu to push simplified Japanese to easecommunication with tourists. The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://
www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/19/national/dentsu-push-simplifiedjapanese-ease-communication-tourists/138

Support for the English Needs, OnCUE Journal, 10(2), pages 130-141

Author bios

Kazumi Kato is a lecturer at Tokai University, School of Marine Science andTechnology, Shimizu campus. Her research interests are interlanguage pragmatics,
speech acts, task-based language teaching, and cooperative learning. She is alsointerested in finding opportunities for her students to use authentic English.
kazumilk@tokai-u.jp
Wendy M. Gough is a junior associate professor at Tokai University, School ofMarine Science and Technology, Shimizu campus. She is a doctoral candidate ineducation with a focus on curriculum and teaching. Her main research interests areintercultural communication and second language identity development. wgough@tokai-u.jp
Received: January 13, 2017
Accepted: September 28, 2017139

Kato & GoughAppendix A

Volunteer Survey A*研修会終了時に回収します。
Volunteer Survey A (people who have volunteered)
アンケート A

ボランティア通訳をしたことがある人にお聞きします。→ 経験のない人は裏面へ

Please answer these questions about your volunteer activities to help foreign
tourists in Shizuoka.
静岡市内でボランティア通訳を経験した人に質問です。

1. Why did you want to become a volunteer to help foreign tourists?
なぜ外国人に対するボランティア通訳をしたいと思ったのですか？

2. How many times have you volunteered?
何回ボランティアの経験をしましたか？

3. Where did you volunteer?
どこで行いましたか？

4. What did you do?
何をしましたか？

5. What did you like about volunteering?
ボランティアをして良かったことは何ですか？

6. What was difficult for you?
何が難しかったですか？

7. What kind of English skills do you think you need to be a volunteer tohelp foreign tourists?
外国人観光客のボランティアをするにあたってどのような英語スキルが必要だと思いますか？

8. How can Wendy and Kazumi help you learn these English skills?
本日のプレゼンター２名に期待することは何ですか？

9. What kind of English services do you think Shizuoka City should have tohelp foreigners?
静岡市は観光客に対して今後どのような英語サービスが必要だと思いますか？

140Support for the English Needs, OnCUE Journal, 10(2), pages 130-141

Appendix B

Volunteer Survey B*研修会終了時に回収します。
Volunteer Survey B (people who haven’t volunteered)
アンケート B

ボランティア通訳をしたことがない人にお聞きします。→ 経験のある人は裏面へ

1. Why did you come to the presentation today?
なぜ今回の研修会に参加しようと思ったのですか？

2. Do you want to volunteer to help foreign tourists in Shizuoka?
今後、静岡で観光客相手にボランティア通訳をしたいと思いますか？
丸をつけてください。

Yes
No
3. What do you want to do to help foreign tourists?
外国人観光客にどのようなことをしてあげたいですか？

4. How often do you want to volunteer?
どのくらいの頻度でボランティア通訳をしてみたいですか？
例）年に１回5. What do you think would be fun about volunteering?
ボランティア通訳の何に魅力がありますか？

6. What do you think would be difficult about volunteering?
ボランティア通訳の何が難しいと思いますか？

7. What kind of English skills do you think you need to learn to be able tohelp foreign tourists?
ボランティア通訳をするためにどのようなスキルを学びたいと思いますか？

8. How can Wendy and Kazumi help you learn these English skills?
本日のプレゼンターに期待することは何ですか？

9. What kind of English services do you think Shizuoka City should have tohelp foreigners?
静岡市は観光客に対して今後どのような英語サービスが必要だと思いますか？

141