ENGLISH LEARNING AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN JAPAN

MASAYUKI KATO

ABSTRACT

Over the end of the second millennium some Japanese politicians were trying to see
how to cope with inadequacies of Japanese language with the current developments in
the global world. Some tried to see if the Japanese people can overcome this barrier by
utilizing English more extensively. This paper is an attempt to provide an overview of the
current situation of English with a backdrop of globalization and global communication
in Japan. Then, I shall try to show the general attitudes of Japanese college students to
this new situation. Finally I will consider some consequences of a bold proposal to give
English the status of the second official language before concluding the presentation by
emphasizing the need to think of language education in ethical terms.