Tokyo-based Venture Republic has launched the English version of the curated travel contents service, Tabiness, to offer Japan‐related travel Information to users not conversant with Japanese.

Tabiness’ content focuses on Japan with more than 200 assigned “travel experts” uploading over 2,400 articles. Information on sightseeing spots and food is updated daily to help navigate travel around Japan.

Users log in to the service mainly at their travel locations to find out more about the area. Over 60% of the traffic is from smartphones.

For the launch, content on popular categories among tourists such as “Tokyo”, “Kyoto”, “Fuji”, “Japanese Food” and “Hot Spring (Onsen)” were uploaded. More categories will be added to the site, targeting inbound tourists who are expected to be increasing by 2020 Tokyo Olympic.

Tabiness is looking into adding a meta search feature, which allows users to book hotels, air tickets and tours just like the existing Japanese site. It also plans to offer the service in other languages.