Book Reviews
The Evolution of Japanese Learners inJapan: Crossing Japan, the West andSouth East Asia
Yoko Kobayashi. Routledge, (2018) (138 pages). ISBN- 9780-367-37585-0. Price: 5,991 yen
Reviewed by Fleur Ogura
Meijo University
The Evolution of English Language Learners in Japan is Kobayashi’s first book.
Much of the content is based on her doctoral dissertation and research she has
previously published in various international linguistics and multi-cultural
journals over a period of around 10 years. The book states that it “seeks a better
understanding of the sociocultural and ideological factors that influence English
study in Japan and study-abroad contexts” (p. x). It consists of eight chapters thatare between 10 and 20 pages long and looks at themes including English teachingin Japanese higher education, study abroad, business English, and English learning
magazines. Kobayashi describes these themes as “seemingly incompatible” (p.
x), which possibly means that they are domains that people do not readily link
together, but as this book will show, they are in fact interconnected. Some of thesethemes, such as that many Japanese people have underwhelming English abilities,
have been debated at length in many other publications, and even in mass media,
for example, Japan Today. However, others are newly addressed in this book, suchas the potential of business magazines, such as President or President WOMAN,
to shed light on adult English language learners.
Chapter One and Chapter Six focus on the theme of English education
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Ogurawithin Japan, in particular, how it has been historically unsuccessful. Chapter
One, Japan’s English Education and Students’ Notions about English Study,
mentions some theories to explain this lack of success. These are the relative
ease of acquiring an English teaching license qualification combined with few
opportunities for practical training for prospective teachers, education’s emphasis
on cultivating national identity, attitudes of admiration but unattainability
towards the English language, and doubts about the usefulness of English
in learners’ futures. In my opinion, many of these suppositions are familiar toany educator who has been in Japan for a period of time. In the section looking
at students’ attitudes to English study, she notes that current high school anduniversity students have experienced earlier and more communicative English
education than before, but their attitudes are similar to previous generations.
This arrested development is dismaying, and unfortunately Kobayashi offers nosolutions or suggestions on how to stimulate change.
Chapter Six is titled The Mismatch between Japan's Strong Economy andPoor English Education. Here, Kobayashi explains how some major scholars inJapan proposed that secondary and tertiary level English education should focus
on a small number of professionals who need English for international businessand allow the rest of the population to remain monolingual. Kobayashi makes
the connection between these monolingual nationals and the economy in the1970s to early 2000s, suggesting workers who can only speak Japanese are ideallysuited to work in the strong domestic market of the time. This link between
education and economy is likely to be interesting and informative to readers.
Kobayashi then brings the debate up to the present day, by considering thepossible connection between poor English education and the current declining
economy and examines the exception of certain companies being successful intheir English education of employees. Some of the information in this chapter
strays a little from the topic, like the comparison between Korean and Japaneseparents’ investment in their children’s English education and the extended
summary of the now slightly outdated hit book by Suzuki (1999) Nihonjin wa
Naze Eigo ga Dekinai ka. Some readers may be curious what Kobayashi thinks
could be done to remedy this situation, but she does not elucidate here.
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Chapter Two, Internationalizing Japan with the Help of its Asian
Neighbors, and Chapter Three, A New Alternative of Studying English in
English-speaking ASEAN Nations, look at Japan and its relationship withnearby countries. Chapter Two focuses on Japanese university students andpicks up on the interesting inconsistency that Japanese university students in
at-home environments tend to seek out friendships with Western students, but
turn to friendships with Korean students in study-abroad environments. The
book outlines Social Identity Theory as a possible explanation. Social Identity
Theory suggests that in study-abroad situations, due to the physical, cultural, andeducational similarities between the two groups, Japanese and Korean foreignstudents identify with each other more than the native English speakers. Thus,
Japanese and Korean foreign students spend more time together socially. Thissituation is an interesting perspective, but it is explained very briefly, so readers
who want more detail about the theory will have turn to the references. It also
describes the uneasy cohabitation of Japanese and foreign students in rural
dormitories, and the equally uneasy symbiotic relationship between Japanesefaculty members and native English-speaking teachers in humanities and social
science departments. The similarity between these two different phenomena wassomething I had not considered, but Kobayashi does not elucidate on why suchsituations occur or how they could be addressed.
Chapter Three concerns itself with the theme of Japanese students studying
in ASEAN countries, which Kobayashi points out is not widely researched,especially in the English medium. The push and pull factors between Japan,
Singaporean, and Malaysian study-abroad programs are explained, such as
the Japanese government’s promotion of such programs and the competition
between the target countries to become an Asian educational hub. She also
highlights the tension between students’ pre-arrival expectations of learning
standard English (i.e. not Singaporean or Malaysian English) and the Englishthat is actually used in the countries. But, she notes that over time Japanese
students’ appreciation of other varieties of English as a lingua franca grows.
Kobayashi then summarizes her own research into Japanese learners of English
in Singapore and Malaysia, which looked at attitudes towards Singlish and173

Oguranon-white teachers, and also the common characteristics of Japanese students.
Many teachers in Japan would have first-hand experiences of students’ limited
conceptions of English speakers/teachers and their frequent passivity in class.
She suggests that this field is ripe for further inquiry, in particular, going beyond
descriptions of the phenomena to practical suggestions to remedy the situation
would be advantageous. Perhaps this is something Kobayashi may address herself
in future research, but this chapter remains descriptive.
Chapter Four, Japanese Female Students’ Positive Attitudes toward
Language Study, and Chapter Five, Japanese (Fe)male Learners’ (Un)motivationin Overseas ESL Contexts, look at the topic of motivation. Chapter Four focuses
on females and the positive attitudes towards, and their perceptions of, English.
However, they often find themselves constrained by a male-dominant, Japancentric business world, leading them to turn to working in foreign companies
or abroad, starting their own business, becoming an interpreter or younglearner teacher later in life, or giving up on using English vocationally andusing the English language for personal enrichment. Kobayashi makes an astutecomparison between female employees in Japan and Western English instructors
who both have cosmetic but peripheral roles in their workplace. She goes on tocriticize those instructors (and her likely audience) as lacking the power andintention to challenge the situation. Chapter Five focuses on Kobayashi’s 2012
research into male students and her conclusions: the low demand for Englishspeaking male job seekers in Japan leads to lackadaisical attitudes, the socialpressure to maintain full-time employment encourages Japanese men to stay inJapan, and masculine pride creates fear of making mistakes. She then proposes
a possible solution of sending disaffected Japanese male students to ASEAN
study-abroad programs (neatly connecting to Chapter Three), because of theadvantages of being more financially viable, and the use of English as a lingua
franca increases tolerance to non-standard English.
Finally, and novelly, two chapters look at magazines in Japan; Chapter Sevenis about Japanese Business Magazines’ Special Issues on English Study Methods:
A Window on the Division between Japan's Business World and Formal
Schooling, and Chapter Eight is titled Japanese Women’s Magazines’ Articles
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about English Study: A Window on Japanese Women’s Status in the Business
World. To my knowledge, magazines have not been utilized as a resource toinvestigate engagement in studying English before, and this is an interesting slant
to take. Chapter Seven looks at four major business magazines that are aimed
at men, such as President or Business Associe, in particular 19 special issues thathave front-cover features on learning English. In contrast, Chapter Eight looks
at the two business magazines that are aimed at women, President WOMANand Monthly Nikkei WOMAN, and notes that in these, English study is usuallypresented in the sub-heading rather than as a main feature. Kobayashi highlights
several features of these magazines, noting differences and similarities between
the two and suggesting research themes that could be taken from them. There
are interesting connections made between the phenomena of English higher
education described earlier in the book and the business world. Kobayashi states,“Japanese business magazines’ front-cover special issues on English study
methods can serve as a window on the nations’ (sense of ) economic vitality,
which exerts ripple-effects on skills (not) required of Japanese college job
seekers and Japanese schools’ (non) global education policies” (p. 114).
Overall, much of this book would be interesting to English educators at
the university level, especially Chapters One and Six. These chapters provide
a deeper understanding and statistics to back up their experiences of teachingin Japan, but they do not give practical suggestions that educators could use in
the classroom. People whose work is concerned with study abroad would find
Chapters Two and Three instructive. It suggests that Japanese students needmore support from program coordinators to make connections with nativespeakers of English.
Outside of academia, instructors in various fields would find much of interestin the chapters that focus on gender differences in languages learners. There aremany findings that give pointers on how to motivate students in the classroom.
For example, disaffected male students like those described in Chapter Five
may need confidence-building exercises to increase their participation in theclassroom, and constrained female students such as those in Chapter Four may
appreciate guidance about how to utilize their skills in their lives. Chapters Seven
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Oguraand Eight would be of interest to business English and English conversation
instructors. The content or perspectives of articles that feature frequently in themagazines are likely to be popular in the classroom, for example, materials thatfeature celebrities or are concerned with TOEIC for male students, and morechallenging material that connects to foreign travel for female students.
What was intriguing about the book for me was the way that connections
between the chapters become apparent as the book progresses. These
connections between various phenomena that are probably well known toteachers are not immediately obvious. For example, poor tertiary level English
education (Chapter One) is linked to monolingual businesspeople working
in the domestic economy (Chapter Six), and this is reflected in the magazines
they read (Chapter Seven). In this way, those seemingly incompatible themes
mentioned at the beginning of the book are in fact very compatible and whentaken together create an illuminating picture of English learners in Japan.

References

Miller, K. K. (2014, October 7). What's wrong with English education in Japan:
Pull up a chair. Japan Today. https://japantoday.com/category/features/
lifestyle/whats-wrong-with-english-education-in-japan-pull-up-a-chair
Suzuki, T. (1999). Nihonjin wa naze eigo dekinai ka [Why are Japanese poor atEnglish?]. Iwananmi.

Author Bio

Fleur Ogura currently works at the Faculty of Foreign Studies in Meijo University
and in the Modern Management department at Sugiyama University in
Aichi prefecture. Her recent publications have included writing and discussion.
fleurogura@gmail.com
Received: April 4th, 2021
Accepted: March 12th, 2022

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