May 11, 2024

JTA Writing and Style Manual Updated March 2023

The output of the Japan Tourism Agency FY2023 “Promoting Multilingual Support for Sightseeing Destinations around Japan” Project is now available on the JTA website (text in Japanese). 

Among the links provided are the JTA's resources for local sites producing English text for sightseeing locations is the 2023 edition of the Writing and Style Manual, which is available in English and Japanese. There is also a link to the JTA Sightseeing Database, which includes the 8,000-plus texts produced by the project between 2018 and 2022 (not updated since). The database is searchable and a valuable reference for producing content about any of the sites funded by the Project to that date. 

The most recently revised edition of the Writing and Style Manual is considerably improved over previous versions, and the guidance about the writing style specified for Project texts is separated into a new Part 2 of the Manual. Technical/copyediting points (romanization, capitalization, italicization, punctuation, etc.) are covered in Part 3. The Japanese edition is fully parallel with the English and may be useful when persuading clients to follow systematic rules for English text. The JTA Signage Project is continuing into its sixth year in 2024.