KOFU -- The Yamanashi prefectural government has decided to increase the foreign languages for its regionally based guide interpreters to six in total.
The program to train the interpreters, who accompany tourists for a fee, has been provided only for English, Chinese and Thai. But this time, the prefectural government dropped Thai from the list of languages, while adding four new languages: French, Korean, Indonesian and Vietnamese.
The regionally based interpreters can work only within the prefecture.
Ordinarily, people who work as tour guides for foreign tourists in Japan must possess a national vocational qualification.
However, it became difficult for the prefecture to accommodate the needs of foreign visitors to the area only with the nationally qualified guides, since the number of foreign visitors to the prefecture sharply rose after UNESCO officially designated Mt. Fuji, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, as a World Heritage site in 2013.
In 2015, the prefecture was designated by the central government as a special zone for guide interpreters working in the area surrounding Mt. Fuji in the prefecture, and established the qualification of guide effective only in the prefecture.
After the revised Licensed Guide Interpreters Law took effect in January, the qualification was named "regionally based licensed guide interpreter."
People who work as regionally based licensed guide interpreters are required to complete a two-month training program and study not only foreign languages but also the prefecture's culture, geography, tourist spots and other aspects before passing tests and then being registered by the prefecture.
According to the prefecture, French was added to the list of the languages in anticipation of more French-speaking visitors as eight French national teams, including beach volleyball and road bicycle racing, will use nine municipalities in the prefecture as their training venues for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Korean, Indonesian and Vietnamese were added to the list as they are the three most spoken languages among foreign visitors to the prefecture after English and Chinese.
Thai was dropped from the list of languages for training sessions since only six people are currently registered as regionally based guide interpreters in Thai in the prefecture, while 89 people are registered as English guide interpreters and 32 as Chinese guide interpreters.
The already registered Thai interpreters will be able to continue working as regionally based guide interpreters in the prefecture.
The prefecture plans to recruit trainees for each language soon.
An official of the prefectural government's international tourism and exchange section said the local government hopes to train many regionally based guide interpreters and win many foreign fans of the prefecture through them.
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