A sailor enters a Lawson supermarket near Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan on August 21, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Strip)
TOKYO — To gain a bigger share of the country’s tourism, Japan’s second-largest convenience store chain recently asked its employees to wear ID cards listing the languages they speak.
More than 3.1 million foreign travelers visited Japan in June, 9% more than the same month in 2019 and a new monthly record, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
The country is also home to about 55,000 active-duty U.S. troops, many of whom no doubt stop at a supermarket to buy a snack, an umbrella, or use the ATM.
Accordingly, Lawson asked his multilingual employees to demonstrate their proficiency in one of seven languages – English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Nepali.
“This will allow foreign travelers to use the services more conveniently without encountering language barriers,” the company said in a press release on August 20.
A clerk at Lawson Supermarket displays a badge identifying him as a Nepali language speaker. (Lawson Inc.)
Lawson cited data from the Japan Tourism Agency showing that 25.06 million foreign tourists would visit Japan in 2023, about 6.5 times the number from the previous year.
“Given this situation, it is urgent to strengthen multilingual support in stores that are mainly used by foreign visitors to Japan,” Lawson said in a press release.
The text on the foreign language badges is written in the specified language and is therefore understandable for foreign visitors.
Employees may also wear badges indicating that they are learning Japanese, a company spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone on August 21.
“By clarifying which languages store staff can speak, we are helping to reduce stress and misunderstandings among employees and improve the working environment,” said the spokesman, who asked not to be named in accordance with company policy.
The Lawson program is the first of its kind among major convenience store chains in Japan and resulted from the increase in part-time foreign workers at convenience stores, Japan Today reported on August 20.
About 13 percent of Lawson employees are foreigners, the company said in a statement.
According to Japan Today, about 10 percent of employees at three of the major convenience store chains – Lawson, Seven-Eleven Japan Co. and FamilyMart Co. – are foreigners.
According to the spokesperson, the company has no data on how many employees have worn these badges since the practice was introduced this month.
