What kind of things did you say to the driver who you felt ”cannot comprehend English"?

And correction: Pokemon Cafe is at Higashikan of Nihonbashi Takashimaya, not Shinkan.

Don't even bother. Just try to get everything like addresses listed down on your phone in Japanese or like someone else said before get the hotel business card and use that as reference. Most Japanese taxi drivers are middle aged to pretty old men that only speak Japanese. The only other thing probably is Uber which is scarce to begin with seeing how much of a monopoly the taxi companies are over there.

Uber Taxi is tied with taxi companies. The law bans amateur drivers to get paid in Japan.

English speaking drivers will do better paid jobs than picking people on the streets as I wrote.

This thread seems so strange to me. Isn’t it a taxi driver’s job to know the areas they cover, including the street names, hotels and main sights in those areas? And if they don’t know them can’t they use a map or online map (like Google maps) to find their way? It’s a pretty useless service for any traveller if the taxi they get into has no idea how to get where they are going.

Secondly, why the snobbery about choice of hotels? It sounds like unless the traveller is requesting a 5 star hotel with a turning circle out front they have no right to expect to get to their destination. How ridiculous.

No one is saying they do not know their way around. All we are saying is to get the Name of the hotel/area and they will do the rest.

For example, I didn't know the adress but I told the driver " APA Hotel Nihonbashi Hamacho" and they knew were to go.

The other thing that is being said is the Drivers most likely will not speak english. That is normal, but they are still able to get you to where you need/want to go as long as you provide them the information required. Just take a screenshot/picture of the address, show it to them and boom, you will be on your way. No need to be aggressive towards the drivers for not knowing english.

That sounds more like what I would expect. I wouldn’t expect them to speak English, and nor would I ever dream of being aggressive to someone if they didn’t! But I would expect to be able to show them an address and for them to be able to find it.

But global was clearly saying that if they have never been there before they wouldn’t know where to go. And that’s bizarre because surely taxi drivers should know the areas they cover, and even if they don’t know every building one skill that a taxi driver requires (alongside driving of course) is the ability to read a map and find an address.

Taxi drivers don't know every corner of the town. You just explain where they are.

I asked to go to Kikai Shikokaikan Building. He didn't know it so I told it was opposite Tokyo Tower and told him that it was on the next block when we got closer.

"I asked to go to Kikai Shikokaikan Building. He didn't know it so I told it was opposite Tokyo Tower and told him that it was on the next block when we got closer."

Have you tried to tell him that in 100% English, and tried not to understand what he said back in Japanese? (Look at the driver with a puzzled look) Basically, step into the shoes of an English speaking tourist. Then you will understand the issue presented to tourists, which is the topic here.

Just have the phone number and address (in Japanese) for where you want to go.

What luck do you think a Japanese tourist in Washington DC would have finding a Japanese speaking taxi driver? Not much.

>>> What luck do you think a Japanese tourist in Washington DC would have finding a Japanese speaking taxi driver? Not much. <<<

Well, you are highly unlikely to find any K-12 schools in the US that have Japanese classes. Maybe you might find a college where there is an elective Japanese class.

From what I've gleamed, English is taught in Japan's schools although apparently the emphasis is on reading and writing and not so much speaking. So you are much more likely to find somebody who understands at least a few words in English.