The Kyoto International Manga Museum is planning to implement English guided tours. A test run started on February 18 and will last until March 1. Two 45-minute tours will be held every day. The guides will show foreign visitors around the museum and explain the history with the help of interpreters. The museum is collecting survey data from participants with the intention of implementing guided tours as a formal feature.

The intent of the initiative is to make the museum more accessible for foreign visitors as the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo draw near. Although many tourist facilities within Kyoto have written guides in multiple languages, very few offer guided tours or other verbal explanations in non-Japanese languages.

A Canadian participant in the test run said: "The last time I came to [the museum], there were no English explanations. There were a lot of things I came to understand today. It was interesting when the guide said that she had been told not to read manga when she was a child."

The Kyoto International Manga Museum first opened in 2006. As of 2016, the museum houses over 300,000 items, including some of the very oldest examples of manga.

Source: Kyoto Shimbun, Kyoto International Manga Museum official website