The other day I had a twitter conversation with a foreign resident in Tokyo about a bus driver who made announcements in perfect English. My first impression was that he might be one of the jobless graduates who took on this job just to be able to make a living just like there are taxi drivers in Munich with a Ph.D.. However, she then reported that he seemed to be in his fifties, so there must be some other reason behind his unexpected fluency in a foreign language. So my next guess was, that he may be a pioneer of drivers being trained to be able to communicate effectively with all the foreign atheletes and spectators coming to Tokyo in 2020 for the Summer Olympics.
Later that day, I found this interesting article about Japan’s project to draw more international companies to the country with special zones in Tokyo and the Chubu region with tax incentives and financial aides to help bring foreign staff into this country of high prices compared with other popular sites for Asia Headquarters, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul. Please read on here for details. If this project succeeds in bringing more international companies to Tokyo it will help the expats tremendously if announcements on buses, too, would be made in clear and easy to understand English.
