Japan drugmakers are about to get a way to translate their over-the-counter labels and dosage instructions into Chinese as a protection and service primarily for visitors from China and Taiwan.
The Home Medicine Association said it expects to have a website up and running this summer for stores to find ingredients, usage instructions and warnings for the drugs in Chinese. Many stores in tourist areas often keep a Chinese speaker on staff for that purpose.
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana.
The group said it was concerned that many visitors take home Japanese-labeled OTCs as gifts, leaving their recipients without information they need but cannot understand.
Later, the association said, it would consider offering the service in other languages, such as Korean and Thai, Nikkei said.
- here's the story from Nikkei