When visitors come to the World Expo in Osaka next year, guides for the global event will welcome them with the Japanese customary greeting of a bow.
Training began for those wishing to be Expo guides in October, and among the things on the curriculum are the three styles of bowing, a gesture in Japan to show respect, express gratitude or apologize.
Guides are taught to tilt their body forward from the waist by around 15 degrees when replying, "Certainly." But when they say, "Please visit us again," they are supposed to bend around 30 degrees from the waist. For an apology, the guides should lower their body forward so it is at 45 degrees from the waist.
The training period lasts from 10 to 20 days and is being taught by Ikuko Yokota, an official of Tokyo-based event planning firm Tsp Taiyo Inc. She has been in charge of training staff at Japan pavilions since the 1992 Expo in Seville, Spain.
"Customer service that makes the most of Japanese qualities such as modesty is highly appreciated even overseas," she said.
During a lesson in late November at a conference room in Osaka, around 130 potential guides were taught how to convey 10 commonly used expressions in Japanese, English and sign language.
Around 1,000 guides are expected to attend to visitors during the Expo, running from April 13 to Oct 13 next year on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay. Their main responsibilities will be giving directions around the venue and responding to cases such as dealing with a lost child.
The hourly wage of 1,850 yen has proved attractive, with the job application ratio at more than 28 to one.
Kanako Ura is among those who have been accepted. She said she applied for the job after learning about her family's past involvement in the Expo. Her grandfather and mother staged a demonstration of iaido -- a Japanese martial art-- at the 1970 Osaka Expo.
The Osaka resident acknowledged the difficulty of using different bowing gestures depending on the situation but said she hopes to get by. "I want to be able to connect with visitors," she said.
