Web survey data on the use of the English language in the Japanese workplace

Abstract

This study sought to determine the extent to which English has spread in Japanese society. It analyses large‐scale web panel‐based questionnaire survey data and estimates English use frequency using a bias correction method. The results show that for most types of English use investigated, the average frequencies were less than five times a year, the proportions of English users were less than 20%, and these frequencies varied according to the type of language use and workers’ attributes. These findings suggest that English use in Japan is limited to a small specific group of workers. Furthermore, the use of English productive skills was shown to be less than 10%, whereas the use of English receptive skills and other cross‐linguistic behaviours were more common. Based on these findings, this study discusses the scale of the spread of English in Japan from the perspective of English use frequency.

Modeling personality antecedents and second language self-efficacy constructs with emerging adults in Japan: Domain-specific matching for assessing global competence in applied contexts

“…The mean scores for all self-efficacy types for emerging adults in the general population from the present study (M = 2.46) were lower than Kabir and Sponseller (2020) for university students (M = 2.92) and professional educators (M = 3.71). This finding is similar to a study of university students from Japan in which self-perceived L2 domain skills in English were low (Chen et al, 2020), aligns with another study showing low levels of English use in terms of speaking skills for those outside of university (Terasawa, 2021), and corresponds generally to other findings for self-efficacy and motivated behavior (e.g., Ueki and Takeuchi, 2013). Considering the higher values for FOF with these lower levels of all L2 self-efficacy types (Table 1), our findings resemble the broader observations of self-efficacy and fear of failure with 15-yearolds in the PISA, 2018 Japan results (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2020), representing a possible extension to the foreign language and intercultural skills domains among the developmental group of emerging adults aged 18-29 years old.…”

“…Despite a lack of a clear policy consensus, problem-solving and foreign language skills with a special emphasis on English communication ability, co-occurred the most strongly for the Japanese higher education context ( Hofmeyr, 2021 ), suggesting some priority about curricular components. The role of English in Japan’s educational and workforce landscape is debated, with some researchers finding in favor of its facilitating role for globalization processes (e.g., Morita, 2017 ), and others finding marginal proliferation changes limited to occupational necessity, with a relative dominance of receptive (e.g., listening) to productive (e.g., speaking) skill use in Japanese workplaces ( Terasawa, 2021 ). These contexts represent a connection between the training ground and endpoints of educational programming for emerging adults who will enter the workforce in Japan.…”