Cultivating “Japanese Who Can Use English”: Problems and Contradictions in Government Policy

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgment I wish to acknowledge the generous support of the Centre for Critical Cultural Studies at The University of Queensland during my Faculty Fellowship in 2007. Notes 1. They were published in both Japanese and English. The Japanese title of SPJE is '"Eigo ga tsukaeru Nihonjin"no ikusei no tame no senryaku kôsô', and the title of APJE is '"Eigo ga tsukaeru Nihonjin"no ikusei no tame no kôdô keikaku'. 2. See LoCastro (1992) for her argument that English has been "dehumanised" and "decontextualised" by the Japanese education system. 3. It is well known that Japan's TOEFL score in 1999 was the lowest among Asian countries (Torikai, 2002 Torikai, Kumiko. 2002. TOEFL, TOEIC to Nihonjin no eigo-ryoku, Tokyo: Kôdansha. [Google Scholar]). 4. See Tsui and Tollefson (2007 Tsui, Amy B.M. and James, Tollefson W. 2007. "Language policy and the construction of national cultural identity". In Language policy, culture, and identity in Asian context, Edited by: Tsui, Amy B.M. and Tollefson, James W. 1–21. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. [Google Scholar]) for the issue of English and national identities in Asian countries. 5. For example, "kÛru bizu"[a shortened version of "cool business"], which became the vogue word of the year in 2005, was originally chosen from public nominations by the Ministry of Environment to promote energy saving. "IT kakumei"[IT revolution] and "kakusa shakai"[society with growing class divisions] were the vogue words of the year in 2000 and 2006 respectively, and are now established Japanese words in both public and private sectors. 6. See Billig (1997 Billig, Michael. 1997. Banal nationalism, London: Sage Publications. [Google Scholar]) for his argument on "banal nationalism" in relation to the unexamined assumptions of politicians and media when using shared metaphors and idioms with which to persuade their audience. 7. It is sometimes indicated that English translations are outsourced for the English editions of government publications. In the translation trade, it is common practice to translate from the target language to the native language of the translator. However, this is not the case in Japan because of the chronic shortage of native English translators. 8. Since 1995, only Part I, which contains a feature topic for the year, of the original Japanese edition has been published in English. 9. Only selected documents are posted on the English sites, and these are often abbreviated versions of the original Japanese texts. 10. Proust's [Agrave] la recherche du temps perdu was translated as Ushinawareta toki o motomete. 11. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the highest recorded levels of unemployment and increase in part-time labour were in 1998. The survey also shows that there was a change in the attitudes of young people toward employment (Kôsei-Rôdô-shô, 1998 Kôsei-Rôdô-shô. 1998. Heisei 10-nenban rôdô keizai no bunseki. http://kensaku.mhlw.go.jp/app, accessed 13 May 2007 [Google Scholar]). 12. The report was published in both Japanese and English. 13. See Shibuya and Kojima (2007 Shibuya, Kenjirô and Kojima, Isamu. 2007. Gengo-ken no riron to jissen, Tokyo: Sangensha. [Google Scholar]) on the lack of the legal definition of official languages in Japan. In relation to the assumption that Japanese is the only official language in the society, Shibuya and Kojima point out that Japanese language is customarily used in courts, and the right to be provided with an interpreting service is not guaranteed, which is against the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). 14. See Hashimoto (2007a Hashimoto, Kayoko. 2007a. Power and illusion: Old words, new expressions and desire for empowerment. AUMLA, : 105–14. [Google Scholar]) for details of this cultural phenomenon. 15. Capitalising on the new linguistic boom in –ryoku, Yamada (2006 Yamada, YÛichirô. 2006. Eigo-ryoku to wa nani ka, Tokyo: TaishÛkan. [Google Scholar]) published a book called "Eigo-ryoku to wa nani ka (What is English ability?), which challenges the definition of the word. Yamada argues that everybody agrees that eigo-ryoku is about individual ability or competence in English. However, nothing is clear beyond that, because there has never been adequate discussion to clarify the definition of the word in TEFL. 16. There have been some adjustments in the academic sector in this respect. The Society of Japanese Linguistics, established as Kokugo Gakkai in 1944, changed its name to Nihongo Gakkai in 2004 to accommodate a larger audience (see their homepage –http://www.jpling.gr.jp[accessed 20 October 2008). 17. According to Asahi Shinbun (3 October 2007), the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry pointed out a gap between the education sector and the business sector in terms of the focus on cultivating talents. (Shakai ga motomeru jinzai to wa: keisanshô to monkashô ga kaigi secchi: http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/1003/TKY200710030272.html[accessed 3 October 2007]). 18. MEXT YôgoshÛ. http://homepage3.nifty.com/TONO/monbu.htm (accessed 25 May 2007). 19. The issue surrounding the slogan needs to be looked at in relation to the impact of widening class divisions on education and TEFL. However, that is outside the scope of this article. 20. As noted in Note 19, the issues of widening class divisions and individual responsibility for one's own abilities are closely related to the promotion of TEFL. 21. http://stepeiken.org/about/eiken-grades.shtml 22. See Wolferen (1990 Wolferen, Karel van. 1990. The enigma of Japanese power, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. [Google Scholar]) for his argument about Japanese attitudes to perfection in learning. 23. No definition is given for the term "native speaker" in APJE 2003. The original Japanese is a loanword, neitibu supîkâ. 24. There are other issues that need to be considered in relation to the involvement of local people, such as age, financial and employment status. The government does not appear to take these into consideration in policy implementation. 25. See McVeigh (2002 McVeigh, J. Brian. 2002. Japanese higher education as myth, Armonk: M. E. Sharpe. [Google Scholar]). He argues that they are ostracised because of their English abilities.