Japanese people’s dislike of English

There are still many Japanese people who are afraid of foreigners.


They are so-called English-phobic that it is very difficult for them to converse directly with foreigners.


Personally, I think the reason Japanese people are not good at English is because there are problems with their English education.


English education in Japan is solely for the preparation of entrance exams such as university entrance exams, and there are very few opportunities to converse in English or express one’s opinions in English.


In Japan, English classes begin in elementary school, and students receive English education for at least 10 years.


Despite studying English for such a long period, many people still cannot speak it. This must be due to problems with the education system itself.


I’d like to share an incident that has occurred sporadically in the past, but has become especially frequent recently.


The number of foreigners visiting Japan has increased dramatically in the past few years.


At famous tourist spots, there are almost only foreigners and you never hear Japanese.


Conversely, when I travel abroad, I hardly see any Japanese people, and sometimes I worry about where all the Japanese people are.


It is said that Japan needs to bring in a lot of foreign workers because of a labor shortage, but I think this policy is very strange.


There are many Japanese people who want to work. However, wages are being steadily reduced, while taxes are increasing dramatically year by year.


This is a problem that could be solved domestically in Japan if the government would simply raise the wages of Japanese workers before bringing in foreign workers.


As you know, Japan’s population is declining at an alarming rate.


This is not just a problem of a declining birthrate and aging population.


Also, the news coverage in Japan is completely different from that overseas, so many Japanese people have no idea the truth.


Even when I tell people around me about this strange immigration policy, most don’t believe me because it’s not being reported on TV or in the newspapers.


There’s no way that TV and newspapers would report the truth.


The old media is exploiting the characteristics of the Japanese people to report lies every day.


As expected, few Japanese people who have experience abroad believe the reports.


I think this is because many of them are able to think about things from multiple perspectives.