Customer's Voice: Omi Railway Co.

Omi Railway Co., Ltd. which operates railroad, bus, real estate, and sightseeing businesses, introduced MySite AI Translation to their group website.
We asked the person in charge about the background to the introduction of the service and his/her impressions.

- What were some of the challenges you faced before introducing the system?

With the increase in the number of foreigners visiting Japan as a result of inbound travel, the problem was that foreigners who came to Osaka and Kyoto were not being guided to Shiga Prefecture.

- Were there any factors that contributed to those challenges?

Until now, the site had been translated by human translators, but this was time-consuming and costly, and we thought it would be impractical to translate information that changes from day to day, such as train service information, on a case-by-case basis.

We knew we needed automatic translation, but we couldn't take the first step until we found Kohden's " My Site Translation! I thought, "This is it!

- Thank you very much for choosing Kodensha.

- Are there any specific points that you are glad you introduced " My Site AI Translation"?

Until now, human translation had only been available for one part of the site, but with the introduction of " My Site Translation," we were able to translate the entire site, and the number of foreign visitors has increased more than sevenfold since the introduction of the system.

The operational status in the location system can now be translated in real time.

We no longer have to arrange for translation work to be done in each language, which occurs on a case-by-case basis, and we can concentrate on managing the Japanese site because the translation is done automatically with no time lag.

In addition, we can register individual translations for words that are difficult to translate, such as station names, making the service a perfect combination of automatic and human translation.

Another great point is that the cost is fixed, making it easy to set a budget for the year.

- Have you had any reactions or feedback since its introduction?

We have been able to consolidate our work within the company, and our workers can now use the time they used to spend on translation work for other tasks.

Our clients often comment that it is convenient to be able to display train, bus, cab, ship, and ropeway operation information in their native language.

- Were there any points that made you choose our service?

In fact, we were considering several services internally, but we chose this one because it had more functions and a better support system than other services, and when we looked at its track record, we felt confident that many local governments had adopted it.

- We are glad to hear you say so. We will continue to do our best to support you.

4. Any feature requests or suggestions you would like to make regarding our services.

In the future, I felt that it would be more convenient if there was a function to read out the text on the site.

5. Future prospects for using the service

We will continue to create a website that can be used more by foreigners living in Japan and foreigners who come to Japan for sightseeing.

- We are involved in many services related to translation, including automatic translation services for websites, translation of subtitles for print media and videos, and multilingual audio.

Please feel free to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Omi Railway Co.

Founded in 1896, Omi Railway Co., Ltd. is a company that operates railroad, bus, real estate, and tourism businesses in the Koto region of Shiga Prefecture.

In addition to operating railroads and buses that support the lives of residents living along its lines, the company also provides a wide variety of services to meet the demand for tourism. The company contributes to the improvement of convenience and the revitalization of tourism while valuing the voices of local communities.