All bullet train stations in Japan to get tourist information centres

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EVERY bullet train station in Japan will have a comprehensive tourist information centre by 2019.

Funds to build the new centres or upgrade existing facilities will be requested by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism before the end of this month.

Certain criteria, such as having at least one English-speaking staff and wireless internet connection will be funded by further subsidies provided to the local authorities.

The government in March announced an ambitious target of 40 million foreign visitors in 2020, the year that Tokyo will host the Olympic Games, double the number set out in the previous plan just two years earlier.

Japan is already on course to break through the 20 million barrier this year and the government has announced plans to invest heavily in the tourism sector and to make it an increasingly important source of revenue for the national economy.

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