Traditional theater installs bilingual text display system.

Starting November 17th, the National Theater in Shibuya will debut its 200 million yen text-display seats, which will provide English and Japanese translations of Noh performances in real time. This style of classic Japanese masked opera is a popular spectacle for tourists and traditionalists alike, but unless you've familiarized yourself with the storyline in advance, it's really hard to figure out what all the gestures and high-pitched moaning means. This display system, of course, aims to change this. See the white people in the back of the theater in the picture above? If you look carefully, they're actually smiling because, after many years of frequenting Noh performances, they finally understand what's going on. This was taken at a preview performance of the famous play "Tsuchigumo" for special guests and ambassadors on October 31st.