The Japanese transport ministry has announced plans to start lending to personal digital assistants (PDAs) with travel information and translation services to foreign visitors. The pilot program is part of a government drive to find ways to make Japan more attractive to foreign tourists, who are often put off by the language barrier and the country's high prices. The mobile units with Chinese, Korean and English software will be lent to selected tourists who land at Narita Airport near Tokyo from February through March to test the response.

Japan has set the goal of nearly doubling the number of foreign tourists to 10 million in 2010 from 5.73 million in 2003.

- MORE