Tokyo police stepping up efforts to bolster multilingual assistance english.kyodonews.net

KYODO NEWS - 12 hours ago - 18:08 | Lifestyle, News, All, JapanWith the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics less than a year away, Tokyo police are ratcheting up efforts to strengthen foreign language assistance.
Aiming to improve police officers' ability to provide directions, handling lost property claims and other needs in foreign languages, the Metropolitan Police Department has been giving them English conversation lessons.
These recently introduced efforts are complementary steps to ease the burden on the department's interpretation center, which handles cases that require foreign language communication.
By improving its officers' language skills, the Metropolitan Police Department hopes more of its officers can directly provide assistance in foreign languages without relying on the headquarters' interpretation center.
Some 45,000 cases requiring response and assistance in foreign languages went through the interpretation center in 2018, a 50-percent increase from 2014, according to the department.