Tokyo, Japan - May 28, 2024 - NAVITIME JAPAN has upgraded their English car navigation function for its multi-lingual travel information platform "Japan Travel by NAVITIME" ("Japan Travel"). Japan Travel is a smartphone app that provides navigation, transit information, destination information, and other useful travel related services in multiple languages to tourists visiting Japan.



The app has provided basic car navigation features such as car route search and voice guidance. Updated features include:
- Overall renewal of user interface and user experience
- Real-time traffic information
- Routes updated based on traffic information
- Enlarged traffic intersection images and directional board signs
- Five types of routes (when available): Recommended; using toll roads; use local roads only; shortest
distance; and best fuel efficiency



The number of tourists to Japan has risen over the years, and Monthly Active Users (MAU) of the Japan Travel app have also increased. Around 10% of users who created itineraries using a planning feature in the app included trips to rural areas using car rentals, where there is limited public transportation. Such destinations include eastern Hokkaido, Tohoku region, and Shikoku region.
Destinations of itineraries using public transportation centered around the urban areas of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, while destinations using cars were seen across the country and especially to rural areas not readily accessible by public transport.



Prefectures where car usage is included in over 25% of travel itineraries are the following areas: Ehime, Kagawa, Kochi, and Tokushima prefectures which are in the Shikoku region; Fukushima, Miyazaki, and Saga prefectures which are in the Kyushu region; and Fukui and Tokushima.

About "Japan Travel by NAVITIME" App
Provides navigation service for foreign visitors to Japan