Helping small Japanese hotels welcome foreign tourists
To follow up on last week’s post about Japanese hotels that don’t want foreign guests, here’s an NHK news report about an organization that is educating the owners of small Japanese hotels and ryokans about how to welcome foreign tourists:
The man in the video is Shuichiro Ono, the CEO of Jissen! Inbound, an organization that helps market small hotels to foreign tourists and educate the hotel staff on how to best serve international visitors. Ono is helping to teach hotel owners and staff that they need not fear their lack of English ability – speaking Japanese, using gestures, and being friendly is enough to please foreign guests. In fact, some foreign tourists actually prefer the experience of staying at a hotel with staff that only speaks Japanese, since it gives them an opportunity to really feel like they are experiencing Japanese culture and learning some Japanese words and phrases.
One example of the success of Ono’s organization is an ryokan shown in the second half of the clip. The elderly couple that own and operate the ryokan enrolled in Ono’s advice and marketing program, and they have been receiving foreign tourists as guests since last year. Although they speak no English and only use Japanese and gestures to serve their foreign guests, a French/Colombian couple interviewed are enjoying their stay. Ono helps the owners check online reviews of their ryokan, and foreign guests have given it very high marks in all review categories.
Ono and his organization are doing wonderful work to make Japan a friendlier and more accessible place for foreign tourists.
[hat tip to Ponta]
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I think there are two sides to discriminating against foreign customers and this is certainly an attempt to cover one side of it. That is, there is the fear on the part of the inns that they can’t serve customers properly. The other side is fear that the customers will behave inappropriately or misunderstand how to interact with the environment in the inn and damage properly or upset other guests.
It may help if all inns and hotels in Japan had multilingual information for all guests placed in the rooms to give them advice on how to deal with tatami, shoji, Japanese baths, etc. I’m sure most foreign guests would prefer to handle themselves properly, but sometimes they just don’t know what is correct or have been misinformed.
Wow, it’s cool to see that some Japanese people are very kind and warm, even though they don’t speak English, they try their best to interact with visitors, that’s cool
I thought all of them are such people.At lest all that I have met were really,really kind.
James, great post! Love the video. This is really why Japan is such a great tourist destination. A lot of places (and I mean that as in 80-90%, maybe more) do know how to welcome people from all over the world.
Anyway, speaking English isn’t the only issue. Tourists from Asia and South America (and many countries in Europe) are as bad or worse at English as your average Japanese person.
“Anyway, speaking English isn’t the only issue. Tourists from Asia and South America (and many countries in Europe) are as bad or worse at English as your average Japanese person.”
Is that so?
maybe to shed some light, average TOEFL scores for 2007 in Latin America and Europe are around (and mostly above) 80 points of a total of 120, while Japan has some of the lowest results for Asian countries with 65 (only Cambodia is below with 63).
Wile these results might not be completely applicable to “tourists”, the fact that examinees are assumed to have some level of English language education says a lot about general Japanese English skills.
And also, just a personal theory, I think most foreign tourist in Japan are so scared about the language barriers, that they at least try to be able to communicate in basic English before coming.
hat`s off to mr. ono. that is the way to do it. i think that picture signs would do nicely, as well. by the way, they should have them in places like the u.s. so that japanese people know how to properly take a shower!!!! the shower curtain stays inside the bath – that way water doesn`t drip down onto the floor. no matter where the tourist is from, no matter the destination – there are cultural conumdrums that can be addressed.
Also wonder if it’s not really racism, but just that maybe a lot of Japanese can’t understand the concept of wanting to go to another country and experience a local restaurant or inn BECAUSE you can’t speak the language. That people would enjoy the challenge of communicating. That it’s the whole point of travelling abroad in the first place.
So many advertisements (and so many stereotypical Japanese tour groups) are so focused on protecting the J tourist with a layer of translators, Japanese language hotels, set menus at restaurants, and insulation from actual interaction with the locale.
This is not a topic I would want to delve too deeply into. Similar charges could be laid against a lot of Americans, for example. “Fully guided”, “All meals provided,” etc…. What I have not noticed elsewhere, though, is the set “souvenir packages” you can buy, sometimes without even leaving the country, and have delivered to your home. Not for you, but for those co-workers you hate but can’t really ignore.
I was reading an article in a newspaper the other day that gave me an idea: the govt could assemble simple “phrase packets” of common phrases in various languages, with pics as needed, and distribute them to hotels around the country.
Lots of good advice and ideas in this thread.
I think another helpful thing is for the foreign tourists to educate themselves about where they are travelling as well.
Reading that paragraph in the guide book about Japanese baths might just give you the edge in taking one!
Before I came here to study I read the Lonely Planet’s front and back sections–where it explains the postal system, atms, shopping, baths, tv and radio etc..) along with any other guidebook I could find. You’d be surprised how many people come here with out doing any research and complain about not being able to get money out of the ATM however. Just doing that little bit of work made my arrival so much smoother than the rest of my classmates.
Great. Love to see some positivity. Wonder of Arudou will post this in his blog?
As Mornonga mentions below, not only did he not post this article, but he also posted more images of “Japanese-only” signs, at least one of which was taken care of months before it went in his smug “gallery”.
I commented on his blog and asked him to give Ponta the due credit for taking care of the Tsukiji sign, and I urged him to post how it was taken care of – Diplomatically, peacefully, and with no accusations of malicious racism as a forethought. Debito chose to delete my comment instead of approving it.
Just what I expected from Debito. Here we have a video about a Japanese person helping small hotels welcome foreign tourists, something I think Debito would support, but does he post it and tell people about it? No, he just posts old Japanese-only signs. -_- I guess the video doesn’t fit with Debito’s view, so he ignores it.
Well. I’m kind of glad that Debito didn’t remove it simply because I, for one, am sick and tired of ignorant foreign tourists disrupting the professionals at Tsukiji.
This restaurant in question is located within the market and is catered to these professionals who all they want is a nice meal after a long day at the market. Hence, these establishments open early in the morning and closes early in the afternoon.
Actually, two of them (Tsukiji and the Akihabara knife shop) were taken care of. One of them (Akihabara) by Debito himself, again peacefully. They weren’t capable of writing exactly what needed to be said (foreigners are OK provided they have an address in Japan and are not just tourists) so he wrote it for them. But still, they did what was asked, willingly, and still get dragged over the coals for all eternity? Way to reward good behavior and induce others to follow suit!
And don’t forget the third case, the ballet school. There never was any racism, that all came out on his own blog during the “battle”. He never apologized for falsely accusing the school of being “racist”, even after he said he would if he was proven wrong – which he was and he never deleted the blog entry like he said he would if he was proven wrong (see previous). Instead he adds them to his “rogues gallery” of “exclusionary” establishments months after it was shown they most definitively were nothing of the sort. Wow.
Lesson here kiddies: Look at Ono-san. This is how to promote understanding. Look at Arudou-san. This is how to misrepresent and defame respectable businesses. Know the difference.
That is really a good point. Ono-san tries to understand the problem and helps, and it works. The Japanese who are reluctant to be open to foreigners are not racists to speak of, but they just need tips and advices. Debito does not try to understand but misrepresents and “calls for the sanction of public shame”, leaving resentments, making the Japanese feel more ” fear of the unknown”, putting the wedge between “we” and “them”.
I think most Japanese welcome Ono-san and Tyler (平) Lynch type
http://www.debito.org/?p=1941#comment-169246 but resent Debito’s followers type.
No, he didn’t. He put some more old “Japanese only” signs instead.