The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has installed a transparent translation screen covering 12 languages at a subway station to help foreign visitors ahead of global sporting events in the Japanese capital next year.
The system developed by Toppan Holdings is equipped with a keyboard translates between Japanese and English, Chinese, Spanish and other languages.
The transparent display, set up on a trial basis at the end of February at the Oedo Line’s Tochomae Station in Shinjuku Ward, allows individuals to see facial expressions while reading subtitles on the screen, aiding communication, a Tokyo government official said.
Similar screens were installed at Seibu Railway’s Seibu Shinjuku Station and some tourist information service counters in Tokyo last year.
Some retailers, including the Takashimaya department store in Osaka, have also installed the screens in response to the increasing number of foreign visitors, Toppan said.
The screens can display subtitles for both spoken and typed words so people with hearing and speech impairments can also communicate with railway staff, the Tokyo government said.
It is considering installing the translation screens at other stations, with the capital set to host the world athletics championships and the Summer Deaflympics next year, it said.
The system set up at Tochomae Station also translates between Japanese and Korean, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese.