Many residents of Japan are not natives to the country and need help with interpretation and translation from their language into Japanese and vice versa. Therefore, the Japanese government has started a free service for these residents, providing translation in five different languages, including English, Chinese, Russian, and Portuguese.

This is done over a telephone line and if a resident needs to deal with a public official or institution, interpretation is done through the use of a conference call, allowing three people to speak on the telephone at the same time.

So far, a majority of the calls have been from Brazilians. According to one staff member, "I've received more than four calls in a day."

The center has received calls relating to insurance premiums, pension refunds, and calls to law enforcement.

02 March 2009