Japanese retail giant Aeon has begin implementing a new electronic menu system at some restaurants on a trial basis to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Special tablets deployed at select eateries of the retailer’s subsidiary, Aeon Eaheart, automatically change the language of the menu based on the customer’s nationality. Trials will be running in Aeon Eaheart’s base in Chiba, as well as Aeon Eeheart’s restaurants in the city of Narita.

To switch the menu’s language, all customers need to do is pass an IC card or smartphone containing pre-registered passport information, such as nationality, over the tablets. The system uses the Catalog Pocket multilingual service developed by Morisawa, an Osaka-based developer and supplier of digital fonts.

The menu can be displayed in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and Thai. Upon touching menu items, written explanations, which can also be read out, are given in the selected language. Individual restaurants can add information that is not on the original Japanese-language menu, such as halal certification for Muslims and how to eat certain items.

Through its trial operations of the e-menu, Aeon aims to make the system accessible to companies in a wide range of industries. Aeon plans to partner with other companies to develop similar systems that can be used in a wide range of industries for other purposes, such as the provision of multilingual map guide services and the simplification of check-in and tax exemption procedures at hotels and retail outlets.

Although the IC card or a smartphone with registered personal data enables the convenience for businesses to tailor services to individual customers; organisers are expecting privacy concerns leading to reluctance for registering passport information and other personal data.

This report first appeared on Nikkei  Asia Review, and has been edited for clarity.