Community Development Project
The number of visitors to Kyoto reached 10 million in 2013, and is still increasing. It is now time to revamp the shopping districts in Kyoto in order to make them more attractive and easy to access for overseas tourists. Kyoto’s shopping districts (shōtengai) attract crowds but their charms are often not transmitted to foreigners. To improve this situation and support local businesses’ further growth, it is important to create resources and networks to open Kyoto’s shopping districts to the world.
Foreign residents and international students are key for the further growth of the shopping districts. By hiring foreign residents and international students, the districts can offer Japanese style services to foreign visitors without language or cultural barriers. At the same time, it creates a good opportunity for foreign residents and international students to experience Japanese working culture, etiquette and manner. Enrolling foreign staff not only benefits for shopping districts but also for foreign residents and international tourists.
At ICC, we offer training for aspiring foreign part-time workers to help them boost their employment opportunities and ensure their experience goes smoothly.
As we think it is important for each shop to communicate with foreign tourists as well, we are supporting the internationalization of their social network service pages such as Facebook or Twitter as well as the creation of English displays and menu for their foreign clientele.
