Photo/Illutration Tokyo Metro Co. train driver Hiroki Matsuzumi, left, and conductor Satoshi Omuro are encouraging train staff to make live in-train announcements in English. (Midori Iki)

“This train is bound for …” is a phrase that Tokyo subway commuters are used to hearing, but English-speaking riders are less likely to hear it announced live in their native language.

While some train crews are fluent in English, others are still hesitant to announce stops in a foreign tongue.

In the lead up to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, Tokyo Metro Co. began making announcements live in English to improve its service and roll out the red carpet for the expected influx of foreign tourists for the Games.

The voluntary effort was gaining traction, but then the pandemic hit, shattering overseas travel, and the Olympics were postponed and organizers in March decided to ban spectators from abroad. Eventually no domestic spectators will be allowed in almost all Olympic events.  

One year on since Japan closed its borders to foreign travelers, the private subway operator is maintaining the effort as it prepares for the day when it can once again serve foreign tourists. But it now finds itself struggling to increase the number of train crews providing live announcements in English.

“Some of my co-workers told me that they’ll make another attempt someday,” said Satoshi Omuro, 42, a supervising conductor on Tokyo Metro’s Hanzomon Line. “We’ll steadily continue with our efforts until we can once again serve travelers from abroad.”

Japanese transit systems can often be perplexing to navigate for English-speaking foreign visitors.

“Trains come quickly and they are exactly on time, but English is not commonly spoken, compared to India and Singapore,” a travel guide from overseas says of Japan's railway services. 

“That’s a pretty accurate description,” said Hiroki Matsuzumi, 39, a supervising driver on Tokyo Metro’s Yurakucho and Fukutoshin lines, with a sheepish grin.

The initiative to step up their live English services started not long after Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Games. In 2015, the company’s top executives asked eight train conductors and drivers to team up to discuss what the railway operator could do for travelers from abroad.

When the team interviewed foreign tourists about Japan’s train services, some said they feel anxious about the lack of English announcements in the event of an emergency.

Others said they will try to get out of their train car if the service remains suspended for too long after an emergency stop.

While Tokyo Metro already has many prerecorded English in-train announcements, including for emergency stops, they sound less urgent than live versions provided by train crews.

The team decided to quickly begin making in-train announcements live in English so train crews could get used to phrases like “Stay in your car” and “Follow me.”

But until that decision came about and train crews began offering the live versions in 2019, the team was concerned about how passengers would react to staff not fluent in English making the announcements with some difficulty.

“We’re delighted when local people speak to us in our mother tongue at overseas destinations, even if it’s only broken Japanese,” said Omuro. “We want foreign travelers to Japan to feel the same way.”

The team had anticipated that some train crews would oppose the decision, so it chose not to force them to provide the announcements in English, and instead to persuade each crew individually to give it a shot.

“You can boast to your children and grandchildren about having made English announcements during the Tokyo Games,” one member of the team told train crews.

The strategy worked. More and more tried their hand at making live announcements in English. Five months later, nearly half of them did so.

The railway operator received encouragement from passengers through its call center.

“It’s faltering, but I listen to it warmly,” one rider said.

“It’s encouraging to hear English announcements made by those who are not familiar with the language,” said another person, who even felt inspired by the effort. “I’ll do my best at my new workplace as well.”

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