What does PAAN do?
We make apps that bring people and food together across the barriers of language and culture. There are three: MENU-PAAN for travellers, RESTO-PAAN for restaurants, and HOST-PAAN for local governments, tourism associations and travel agencies.
What is MENU-PAAN?
A menu translation app for travellers. Photograph a menu at a restaurant abroad and each dish is explained in your own language: what it is, how it is cooked and how it is eaten locally. The dishes you choose become an order list in the local language that you can show straight to the staff. It reads menus from 105 countries and regions, and the app itself is available in 12 languages. Besides the iPhone app there is a web version for Android and computers, and it is free to start.
What is RESTO-PAAN?
A menu translation app for restaurants. Simply photograph your menu and it becomes a menu in 12 languages. Through a QR code on the table, a tablet or a printed copy, your dishes reach foreign guests in their own language. Tax, service charges and otoshi (the small dish that comes with a table charge) can be explained in each language too. Many restaurants can use it free of charge.
What is HOST-PAAN?
A service for local governments, tourism associations, DMOs and travel agencies. When you hand travellers an invitation code, they can use MENU-PAAN free of charge. You can see which nationalities ate what on a dedicated dashboard, aggregated so that no individual can be identified. Pricing is quoted individually according to scale.
Where does the name PAAN come from?
Food is the most universal of experiences — connecting people across nationality, language, and culture. We wish to play our part in sweeping away — with a light “paan” — the walls that stand at its threshold.
Why did you start with menu translation?
Information about restaurants has spread around the world over the past hundred years. The dishes themselves, however, have yet to cross borders. There are excellent services for maps and reservations, but the last step, from opening the menu to placing the order, is still a wide gap.
Who are the founders?
Rokusaburo INUI, the CEO, found himself defeated by menus at restaurants around the world while serving as a diplomat. He then joined his family’s kushikatsu restaurant business, founded 75 years ago, and saw the same barrier from the restaurant’s side. He remains involved as its fourth-generation managing director. Co-founder Koki YUI is an attorney.
Which AI do you use?
One AI reads the text and another explains the dishes. For each task we use whichever state-of-the-art AI does it best. Each time a new AI comes out, we test it on the same menu photographs as before and switch if it does better.
What do “105 countries and regions” and “12 languages” refer to?
105 countries and regions is the range of menus MENU-PAAN can read. 12 languages is the number of languages the apps can be displayed in, and also the number of languages RESTO-PAAN makes menus in.
What if I find a translation error?
Please let us know from within the app. We will check it and correct it.
How can I arrange an interview or get in touch?
Please write to press@paan.co.jp or use the contact page.