The State of English Education in Japan

6 August 2025

In 2018, veteran English language educator David Barker outlined what he saw as the fundamental problems with English education in Japan. He observed that discussions about necessary changes had been going on for decades, with few actual changes to either methods or results taking place. In this article, I will examine the state of English education in Japan to see which of the issues he identified still persist seven years later, adding my thoughts when and where appropriate.

Environmental Factors

Professor Barker noted three environmental factors limiting the success of Japanese students of English: first, that few of them had any practical need for English; second, that students had few opportunities to practice it; and third, that an insignificant number of hours were devoted to English over the course of Japanese compulsory education.

Due to the homogenous nature of Japanese society, where over 97% of the population is ethnically Japanese speaking Japanese as a first language, English proficiency simply is not a necessity as it is elsewhere in the world. The government rightly encourages English as a lingua franca for international business, research, and tourism, but only a small portion of the populace works or studies abroad. Thus, for most Japanese, the incentive to learn English beyond baseline academic requirements simply does not exist.

With the revised national curriculum standards in 2020, MEXT (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) expanded compulsory English education in elementary school and took measures to increase student talk time in junior high school. Promisingly, recent reporting suggests that these changes have generated some small improvements.

Materials

Another of Barker’s key criticisms was that ministry-approved English textbooks were not fit for purpose, produced by non-experts and containing awkward and unnatural language. Worse, teachers must follow these texts religiously, with supplemental instruction and even scaffolding discouraged. Author Chris Broad humorously recounts his experience with such textbooks in this video.

My own recent review of educational materials produced by Sanseido Publications and Tokyo Shoseki leads me to believe that quality is improving and that textbooks are utilizing more natural language and a more communicative approach. Further, publishers are at last embracing digital technology and multimedia; while “Dick and Jane” may not be leaving us any time soon, at least they have tablets now.

Teachers

Another fundamental influence on the success or failure of English language learners is, obviously, teachers themselves. Professor Barker lamented the fact that intermediate English proficiency is merely recommended, not required, for Japanese teachers in Japanese public schools. The usual redress for this deficiency is provisioning a native English speaker to serve as an assistant language teacher and “team teach” the class.

This criticism of semi-skilled educators is valid, but as Japan – just like much of the industrialized world – is facing a teacher shortage, this situation is unlikely to change in the near term. Given the demands of the public school classroom, it is little wonder that Japanese workers highly skilled in English would seek out private sector employment. That said, one cause for cautious optimism is that English proficiency is rising among English teachers.

Expectations

Barker concluded his analysis with what he considered possibly the most fundamental problem with English education in Japan: unrealistic expectations. He noted the Minister of Education’s impractical expectation that Japanese high school graduates would be able to debate in fluent English, as well as the use of “inappropriate and excessively difficult texts” which even native speakers would find challenging, particularly at the university level.

Seven years later, these unrealistic expectations remain. Given the significance of English proficiency in high school and university entrance examinations, families of means will send their children to private tutors or cram schools for additional instruction, while those children lacking such resources are left to struggle.

Sadly, I can offer no simple solution to this problem. Like Professor Barker, though, I can continue to advocate for “a drastic rethinking of goals and expectations” and spend my career as an English teacher in Japan attempting to make improvements where I can. I urge all my colleagues to do the same.

A Passing Thought on the Election

21 July 2025

The LDP, which has ruled Japan almost continuously for 70 years, has lost its majority. The next governing coalition must include different voices and viewpoints, but it is hard to know whether these will come from the left, the right, or the center. Maybe all of them? Many Japanese are hungry for change, so I hope that good will come of this.

Click the graphic above for more from NHK.

Teaching English in Japan: Myths and Reality, Part One

20 July 2025

Before moving to Japan, my wife and I did quite a bit of research to determine what life is really like for English teachers here. Now that we have started our second year in Tokyo, I feel that I may be able to contribute to this conversation a little. In this and future posts, I will challenge some of the myths I have encountered about English teaching in Japan, based on my own research and the experiences of my family and friends.

Myth #1: Surviving in Japan on an English teacher’s salary is impossible.

This is likely the most widely held misconception, and with good reason: Japan’s economy has slowed and wages have stagnated for decades. Most kindergartens and English conversation schools pay starting teachers around ¥250,000 per month (roughly $1,700 US in July 2025), a paltry sum, particularly for those trying to support a family or burdened by American student loan debt. See this excellent analysis by Dogen, a former JET assistant language teacher.

My counterpoint is not that Japan’s cost of living is significantly lower than much of the West, although this is true. Rather, I would argue that Japan offers better value for money than the United States (especially considering recent economic events), and a quality of life that cannot be measured in either dollars or yen.

Please put yourself in the shoes of a new teacher in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. You can expect a pre-tax monthly income of about $4,000, although teachers underemployed as paraprofessionals make significantly less. Consider yourself lucky if you can find a safe place to live for less than half of that, then factor in the expenses of owning and maintaining a vehicle for your (probably) hour-long commute. Once you budget for food, medical expenses, utility bills, and so on, you may reach the same conclusion that my family did: if you’re going to be broke, might as well be broke in Japan.

Myth #2: Teaching English in Japan isn’t a “real” teaching job.

While there is legitimate criticism of eikaiwa instructors being forced to “babysit” and ALTs used as “human tape recorders”, these critiques sometimes overlook the reason why the students are there in the first place: to learn English.

A Japanese junior high school student may or may not be excited about his mandatory English classes, but he is still under significant pressure to perform well, both in class and on school entrance examinations. Families with the means to do so may send such students to conversation or cram schools for additional instruction, just as adults with personal or professional needs may take English lessons themselves. These environments all require competent instructors to help students succeed, and teachers failing to do so will soon find themselves without clients or employment contracts.

Additionally, it should be noted that the requirements to secure visa sponsorship and a teaching position are at least as stringent as the qualifications required to substitute teach in the United States. While subs may be used as babysitters now and again, those in regular or long-term positions likely possess the same skills, if not the same credentials, as “real” teachers. The same holds true here.

こんにちは世界!

18 July 2025

Hello, world! This is the first post of my new blog.

If you somehow discovered this site by accident and have yet to read my about page, please allow me to provide a brief introduction. My name is Tim Walker, former school “IT guy” from Orlando, Florida, USA, now living with my wife and son in Tokyo, Japan. In less than one month from the time of this writing, I will have earned my Master of Education in Teaching English Learners from the American College of Education. This blog was established to fulfill the requirements of an assignment, but I intend to keep it going as a professional platform to share my thoughts on teaching English in Japan, struggling to learn the Japanese language, and related topics. If that’s at all interesting to you, stick around and feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for reading!