Abstract
Recent regulatory changes in Japan have enabled licensed interpreter-guides to engage in driver-guiding, combining guiding and driving within a single professional role. While driver-guiding has attracted attention as a means of improving tourist mobility and diversifying tourism services, limited research has examined how interpreter-guides themselves experience and negotiate this emerging form of work under conditions of deregulation. This study explores interpreter-guides’ engagement in driver-guiding through qualitative interviews with 14 licensed interpreter-guides operating in rural and urban contexts in Japan. Drawing on thematic analysis, the study examines how driver-guiding is practiced, understood, and experienced in relation to mobility, working conditions, and institutional arrangements. The findings indicate that driver-guiding cannot be understood as a uniform activity but instead represents differentiated forms of tourism labour shaped by regional structural conditions. In rural areas, driver-guiding primarily functions as a supplementary mobility practice that compensates for limited public transportation and enables access to dispersed destinations. By contrast, in urban contexts, it is positioned as a value-added service that combines language skills with private vehicle use to provide flexible and personalised tourism experiences. Despite these differences, participants across contexts shared concerns regarding institutional ambiguity, unstable demand, insurance and pricing issues, safety responsibilities, and limited professional support. The study argues that driver-guiding represents an emerging form of hybrid professionalism situated at the intersection of guiding and transport services. By examining how deregulation reshapes professional responsibilities and working conditions, the study contributes to broader discussions on tourism labour, mobility, and regulatory transition in contemporary tourism industries.
Recommended Citation
Tanaka, Naoko
(2026)
"Connecting Tourism and Mobility: The Emerging Role of Interpreter-Driver Guides after Deregulation in Japan,"
International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research:
Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijtgr/vol7/iss1/3