business talks with travel agencies were held in these 45 areas to get their tourist resources closer to a state of commercialization and to build business models that appropriate profits for the development of more optional tour products.

About 70% of the Michi-no-Ekis located nationwide are furnished with a tourist information center, which not only serves as a gateway for first-time visitors to the localities but as a site to host optional tours. In FY2014, the priority Michinoeki program was inaugurated to extend prioritized support to excellent Michinoekis and was pursued in conjunction with authorities who were concerned with their current abilities to serve as a general point of guidance for local tourism, promote inbound tourism, etc.

## 5 Conditioning the Environment to Host Foreign Tourists

To attain a milestone of 20 million inbound foreign tourists by 2020, it would be of exceptional importance to create an environment for these tourists to be able to move and stay in with comfort and to allow them to leave Japan at the end of their tours satisfied, and then come back to Japan in the future as repeat customers.

To attain this goal, the following approaches were taken during FY2014.

As for multilingual support, approaches to pursuing the consistency and continuity of markings used in a broad range of facilities, such as art galleries, museums, natural parks, tourist sites, raods and public transport facilities, were driven in conjunction with the relevant government ministries and agencies pursuant to guidelines commonly applicable to these facilities formulated and published in March 2014, so that foreign tourists can enjoy their tours of Japan without being frustrated by “language barriers” to the extent possible. In addition, amendments were made to the “Ordinance on Road Signage and Marking” to encourage the conversion of road guide signs from Romanized letters to English at major tourist spots and elsewhere, so that the signs would be more intelligible for foreign tourists. In the meantime, more than 60 years on after the inauguration of the Licensed Guide-Interpreter Program, problems have been raised concerning the quality and quantity of Licensed Guide-Interpreters as the number of inbound foreign tourists has topped 13 million and now aims to attain 20 million. In December 2014, the Review Committee on the Licensed Guide-Interpreter Program organized of representatives of a broad class of stakeholders met to start exploring possible solutions to these problems.

In August 2014, the “Free Public Wireless LAN Development Promotion Conference” was incorporated jointly with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to develop an environment in which foreign travelers can walk out on their own. Efforts have been driven through the medium of this Conference to promote further development, broader recognition and acceptance of a free public wireless LAN environment and to simplify authentication procedures.

Efforts directed at bracing for the “Era of One Million Cruising Tourists” to come include answering queries from cruise ship companies and others at a single one-stop point of contact installed at the MLIT’s Ports and Harbours Bureau, sponsoring sessions of business negotiations and symposiums with the participation of cruise ship companies, port management bodies and others in corabolation with “National Cruise Vitalization Conference” and improving an integrated website from which to release information about the specifications of port and harbor facilities and tourist information about the ports of call. Also, the functions of passenger terminals have been enhanced by efficiently utilizing the existing facilities.

To encourage tourist visits to Japan from Islamic nations, including Southeast nations that promise further leaps, guides designed for eating and drinking establishments, etc. that expect to host Muslim tourists so that they can make smoother choices of their orders at these establishments. At the same time, seminars have been held to promote the dissemination of information about the menus, foodstuffs, eating utensils, cooking environment and so on. The dissemination of information sought by the Muslim tourists, such as the places of eating and drinking establishments and places of worship in the localities, etc. has also been reinforced.

Other efforts made include simplifying the procedural flow of immigration at airports and ports with improved CIQ, improving means of secondary transportation, improvement of the payment environment, such as promoting the installation of ATMs ready for credit cards issued overseas and encouraging “Hands-Free Travel” for inbound foreign tourists leveraging home-delivery and other services.