“英語を学べばバカになる — グローバル思考という妄想” ??

Here comes an anti-English book,  guess what, written by a French lover.

英語を学べばバカになる グローバル思考という妄想 (光文社新書)

暴走する「地球温暖化」論—洗脳・煽動・歪曲の数々
Interestingly the author turned out to be a climate change denier, but I thought these people only exist in some part of the USA. Where is this guy getting his idea? — American media, for sure, since there are not so many climate deniers in France.   So learning French as well as reading bad science can make people dumb… To be fair to France, he is just a Japanese idiot who can write well to fool others without content: he is an excellent example of idiots who can learn other languages but cannot understand science. Depressing. French people would be disgusted to know he can speak French…

In general, idiocy comes before learning English not other way around. The author of 英語を学べばバカになる グローバル思考という妄想 (光文社新書) did not even finish his PhD, and he is now a professor of a university: that sadly manifests the level of the university. Too many useless books are around.

“英語を学べばバカになる — グローバル思考という妄想”: I would agree if he wants to say that English becomes “an indulgence” (贖宥状) for losers in Japan: a tool for cherry-picking facts that fit their opinions around the world. People must weigh multiple opinions on given issues to extract most optimal solutions. Equally idiotic is that Japanese who does not understand the world claim that Japan is a heaven since other countries have so many problems.

“キャリアに関するデータの真相　その1：「若者は内向き」という誤解”

http://www.r-agent.co.jp/kyujin/knowhow/tatsujin/20101118.html

This is really an important piece of information no media or people talk about. Media often blast that basically Japanese youths do not have global ambitions. But the decline in Japanese students in American universities stems from more complicated reasons. Many people involved this issue should be aware of these statistical frauds, otherwise they are as incompetent as  the very youths they are targeting.

http://htn.to/y7gUS3

Japan’s uncertain future: Key trends and scenarios: prediced in 2002.

This is a fairly old prediction but it looks as if he had written this yesterday. Is Japan undergoing latent structural revolution or just making itself fermented sushi to obscurity? Make it happen! We will know it soon. But it seems, many political systems around the world are collapsing. (or we just feel the sky is falling all the time in history. This hyper-cautious behavior might have been the source of success of our species… “paranoia”.)

Japan’s uncertain future: Key trends and scenarios.
By Staley, David J.
Publication: The Futurist
Date: Friday, March 1 2002

http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/sales-forecasting/113202-1.html

Four Scenarios for Japan in 2025

1 ENTREPRENEURIAL JAPAN

The government encourages individual initiative and entrepreneurship instead of state-sponsored corporatism. Corporations create an “intrapreneurial” structure that harnesses their creative and risk taking workers within the existing corporate system. Alternatively, Japan imports American-style entrepreneurship: The young risk takers inject new energy into Japan’s economy. A cult of the entrepreneur takes hold in the country, eventually producing “Japanese Bill Gateses.”

2 JAPAN AS NUMBER TWO

Japanese entrepreneurs fail to restore Japan to its past status as the world’s dominant economy. Instead, Japan settles into a second-tier economic status. Like Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, Japan delivers relatively high levels of health, wealth, and literacy to its people, but does not become a global economic leader.

3 AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY

As Japan’s population ages and its birthrate declines, many women enter the workforce to fill the need for both skilled and unskilled labor. Japan also addresses its labor shortage by hiring more immigrants to fill job vacancies. Over time, these foreigners are fully welcomed into Japanese society.

4 CULTURAL RETRENCHMENT AND ISOLATION

Demographic pressures induce a conservative social reaction. Japan resists gender equality and multiculturalism. Women are encourage to apply their “traditional” skills to care for an aging Japanese population. Alarmed at falling birthrates, the government adopts an official policy that encourages couples to have many children.

David J. Staley

Is Immigrantion possible in Japan? a white elephant?

This entry is just a collection of information about immigration issues in Japan found on the web to find out its possibility. Immigration models used in USA, Canada or New worlds are not likely applicable nor feasible to Japan without significant modification because of their histories are totally different. More realistic models that Japan can adapt are probably European models: British or Swedish models might work. (Most likely none of the models are suitable.) But there is no perfect solution on this in any country. Probably Canada is one of most successful countries as for immigration because it only borders with USA and the Antarctic ocean. It has vast resources and lands, but Japan does not have neither unfortunately.

But who want to come to Japan? Actually probably a lot of people like to come, including highly skilled workers as well as non-skilled. Main problem is how Japanese accept these people and accept multicultural society, instead of totally transforming them into Japanese.  But many Japanese likely want to convert them into Japanese completely. I am not sure how many immigrants will put up with such assimilation pressure.

Finding Home: Immigrant Life in Japan

By Sharon Noguchi

http://japanfocus.org/-Sharon-Noguchi/2349

How to immigrate to Japan

http://www.ehow.com/how_4546603_immigrate-japan.html

“Japan and the Ancient Art of Shrugging”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22kato.html?scp=1&sq=shrugging&st=cse

Freshly overtaken by China, Japan now seems to stand at the vanguard of a new downsizing movement, leading the way for countries bound sooner or later to follow in its wake. In a world whose limits are increasingly apparent, Japan and its youths, old beyond their years, may well reveal what it is like to outgrow growth.

A decent comment, though people might be disagree. Japan should become a country to which people like to come to live  and visit and which establishes its own universal value. Unique cultural value does not have to be xenophobic nor self-denying. That is, xenophobic is another form of self-denial.

日本が危ない！ハーバードから日本人が消えた

A stupid program. I am more scared with these sensationalists in the program who probably did not study seriously in the past than the presumably alarming facts.

http://ow.ly/2tGFx

Why do not they include the number of graduate students? Obviously these number probably increased or are stable. As far as I know there are quite many people are in PhD programs in other countries. That is what matters most in the US education.  No need to watch this crap. Superficial stats do not solve any things.

Factors affecting English proficiency 2

The author has commented my entries. He has extensive first hand experience in EFL in Japan. Any one interested in this topic will find it insightful. He pointed out 10 reasons why English learning in Japan fail. I mostly copied his short version of them. You can just go straight to his web page.

TEFL FORUM: TEN REASONS WHY ENGLISH LEARNING IN JAPAN FAILS

TEN REASONS WHY ENGLISH LEARNING IN JAPAN FAILS
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan

1. Japan is linguistically and culturally self: self-sufficient language
2. Japanese is not closely related to English: linguistic-separation
3. Japanese is not written with an alphabet– alphabetical-difference
4. Learning Japanese requires too much effort — no energy left for another language5. Lack of effective national policy on foreign language education
6. The situation at universities–negative washback from entrance exams and the preparation for them at the senior highs.
7. The situation at universities regarding teacher-student relations, backgrounds, goals: incompatible expectations at universities
8. A lack of EFL programs, specialties, majors, minors, concentrations. There is plenty of ‘General English’. Indeed, that is one of the bitter irony of teaching EFL in Japan. Many of us have jobs because English is required, but we end up wasting far too much time and effort trying to teach students who are in class only because they have to be or have a vague idea that they want to study English with a foreigner.
9. The foreign language teaching and learning ‘culture’. That is, the overall approach to teaching and learning EFL (and these are collaborative activities) that is specific to Japan. Japanese EFL teachers tend towards ‘yaku-doku’, which could be called a version of ‘grammar-translation’. Meanwhile, foreign teachers are drawn to mostly production activities–conversational pair practice–for which there is little or no accountability in terms of evaluation.
10. The language teaching ‘profession’ in Japan. There is a lack of serious and useful teacher training and professional development. In higher education, those who are most often designated to teach EFL courses have backgrounds in literature, linguistics, and teacher training, not actual EFL teaching. If asked, many will even say that they are not EFL teachers and are not interested in teaching EFL.

These points can hinder English learning of Japanese. Any one however can overcome these obstacles if they have strong will or they face with urgent necessity. A nation, Schools nor teachers are not the ones that determine the fate of individuals. It is Individuals who ultimately defines their own fate.  (But this cannot be the national policy since a nation has to elevate its people in principle.)

Strategy for the higher education in Japan

Some highlights from “Higher Education in Japan Higher Education in JapanHigher Education” They should be able to write better English, though that is not the point of the report.

“Outline of measures for “300,000 International Students Plan”

1. To invite international students to study in Japan
>Motivation for studying in Japan and expansion of the one-stop service>
$ To actively provide information about studying in Japan.
$ To strengthen the consultative function for students willing to study in Japan.
$ To enrich overseas Japanese language education and other measures.

2. To improve entrances including entrance examination and admission to university and Japan
>To facilitate studying in Japan>
$ To strengthen universities’ abilities to provide information
$ To promote admission before students’ arrival in Japan.
$ To promote the settlement of various procedures before students’ arrival in Japan.
$ To have universities strictly manage their registrations and simplify immigration inspection etc. and other measures.
3. To promote the globalization of universities etc.
>To make universities more attractive>
$ To predominantly develop Universities as centers for Internationalization (30).
$ To increase courses conducted only in English.
$ To promote double degree programs, short-term overseas study programs and others.
$ To strengthen specialized organizational systems including universities etc. and other measures.
4. To create an acceptance environment
>Efforts to create an environment where students can feel at ease to concentrate on their study.
$ To make it possible to provide students with accommodation for a year or less after their arrival in Japan.
$ To improve and utilize the Japanese government scholarship student system etc.
$ To support and promote exchange activities with local communities, businesses, etc.
$ To enrich Japanese language education in Japan.
$ To give livelihood support to international students etc. and other measures.
5. To promote the social acceptance of students after graduation/completion.
>Globalization of the Japanese society>
$ Industry, government and academia cooperate to support students in seeking jobs or starting enterprises.
$ To consider clarification of the visa status and reworking of students’ permitted period of residence.
$ To enrich follow-up activities after students return to their own countries and other measures.
$ “Outline of measures for “300,000 International Students Plan”

The number of graduate students more than doubled in the past 20 years while the population of that age group decreased significantly. The older generation might question of the qualification and quality of these students. While younger generations argue that they are working harder and smarter, and the advance of technologies gives them greater advantage over their previous generations. This type of generational conflicts probably existed even before human started using fire if they lived long enough. All the generations think they are living in a special moment.

The number of Japanese who study abroad is not decreasing when the number of students is factored into the equation. Over all people are now studying many different places as the price of education in developed countries become prohibitively high. Despite constant political hostility between  Asian neighbors, many Japanese find opportunities in  these countries.

[PDF] 日本人の海外留学者数 … 76,464 ←  日本人の海外留学者数

[PDF] 日本人学生等の海外留学

Korea adopts Western schools

Korea’s bold attempts to create a special English speaking school district in which only English is allowed may revel the intrinsic weakness of Korean society. First, they do not want to have such a district in main land — not-in-my-back-yard attitude or just simply lack of lands. Second, they like to domesticate students with English without giving away kimchi mentality. Third, some school specifically seems to exclude Japanese. Well, they want to cultivate the environment peppered with global culture with Asian face except Japanese. — That is fine and the number of Japanese American is relatively small as well and if Japanese-Americans want to go to this Korean school is questionable.

“There is an expressed desire in Korea to seek the benefits of a ‘Western’ or ‘American’ approach to pre-collegiate education,” said Ted Hill, headmaster of the Chadwick School, whose Songdo campus has been deluged with applicants to fill the 30 percent of slots reserved for Korean students. The balance of the student body will be recruited from expatriate families living in South Korea and China.”

For them it is just a business opportunity, but hey, others want it.

Western Schools Sprout in South Korea
They like to cultivate English skills without compromising Korean identity, culture and pride.

I hope they will not repeat the failures of American universities in Japan.

バブル期の遺跡『消滅大学』

”日本にいながらアメリカに留学できるわけです。
当時のキャッチフレーズは『私、日本にいながらアメリカの大学通うの！』だそうです。”
http://home.owari.ne.jp/~shima60matsuo-s/newpage60.html

Osaka governor has already planed this type of project in Itami and it might be a good bet. To attempt to create a similar “virtual international district” from scratch, one must realize that “nation building” is not cheap nor easy.   So the governor’s idea might be better than the Korean project since Itami is more attractive than a developing island.

One difference is that Korean started it already and Japan is just thinking about it. Or it already failed similar American university nightmare, though this phenomena was fundamentally different.

If Japan and Korea want to compete globally then they have to come up with universally acceptable values shared by all ethnic groups. They are both afraid of wider  scale immigration even though they see its benefits. “Globally compete” means that excelling in hardware as well as content creation and accommodation that can be accepted by many people who can use as well as expand it as their own.

Xenophobic people like to focus on the failure of immigration in the US and France, but they totally ignoring the contribution of immigrants in these countries. Also Detail analysis of human genome indicates that ethnic puritanism is a joke. Xenophobic people idealize the past when only a pure blood-linage flourished, but such people will be disappointed to find that the population of modern human might have been down to about 600 during the last ice age. So Japanese far right wing may need to accept their neighbors as brothers and sisters.

Japanese immigration in USA before WWII

STANFORD UNIVERSITY THE JAPANESE QUESTION: SAN …

The Rise of Anti-Japanese Sentiment and School Segregation in San
Francisco
“The Gentlemen’s Agreements illustrate the corrosive effects of racism
and discrimination on both foreign and domestic policy and support the arguments
of some legal scholars that racial bias has long affected American immigration and
naturalization rules.

Books about immigrations

Internet provides a lot of information but it tends to be shallow.  Useful information can be found in specialized data base but most of people do not use them. Libraries provide much more comprehensive information but not many people use it for blogging.

Nationalism and Immigration Policy: North and South

Richard Sigurdson
Department of Political Studies
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 5V5 Canada

Conclusion

In general, the North is continually brought closer to the South in terms of both freer trade and more direct flows of migrants, mainly from the South to the North. But while trade remains fairly open and western governments have negotiated various agreements to keep it so, migration is heavily restricted and regulated. Immigration rules and procedures have become less discriminatory and policies of multiculturalism or other means of accommodating culturally diverse people have been put in place throughout the North. But there continues to be a strong resentment of more open immigration policies by citizens in the North, regardless of the economic factors (most of which support the call for greater flows of immigrants). The principal reason that immigration remains such a highly controversial issue appears to be the continued strength of nationalist thought and sentiment among citizens of the Northern countries.

The main concerns with immigration continue to revolve around the fundamental role of the nation-state in providing security, maintaining sovereignty, ascribing citizenship, promoting identity, and providing a sense of belonging in a sociocultural sense. As long as nationalism remains strong, countries will resist opening the doors too wide to those who may challenge the majority understanding of the community and its national image.

================
Post-National Politics in Japan?:
The Immigrant Right to Vote
Choong Hoon Lee
Department of Political Science
New School for Social Research, NY.

“We do not think of aliens, legal or illegal, as being ‘disenfranchised,’ because we assume that voting must be based on nation-state citizenship. We do not even think of aliens having politics. They are here mainly for their physical survival
and our convenience: to work as janitors, domestics, nannies and drivers. They are here to scrape by, not govern. They inhabit Aristotle’s realm of private necessity rather than the space of public deliberation. We don’t pause to question the prevailing exclusion of aliens; they are meant to be ruled, not to share in
ruling (Raskin 1993, 433: cited from Varsanyi 2005). “

Human rights/civil rights
• Protection of life, liberty, and property
• Due process of law
• Rights of association in economy, civil society, and cultural life
• Freedom of speech and opinion
Social rights • Collective bargaining and trade unions
• Old age pensions
• Unemployment benefits
• Health care
• Housing/child care/educational subsides
Cultural rights
• Schooling in own language
• Cultural and art subsidies
Political rights
• Run for, hold, and vote for office at all levels (local, regional, and national)
• Establish political, civil, and cultural associations
• Military service

Revitalizing Japan

Thomas Friedman wrote something similar in his book about the social and industrial paradigm shift in the 20th century. He did not specifically discussed about Japan. But Kurokawa concisely summed up the possible cause of the stagnation of Japan, which enjoyed the unprecedented economic growth after its defeat of the WWII. Individuals can easily chose their own action on the face of change. The changing the fundamental social and economic structures that have worked so well previously is very difficult.

Problems that Japan faces today (Hisashi Kobayashi)

This is a presentation given by Dr. Hisashi Kobayashi. I have extracted most of the text in English. Please read his original and check his web pages for more insightful comments.

Problems that Japan faces today

（現在日本が直面する課題）
Hisashi Kobayashi
（小林久志）
October 23, 2009

1) Declining Ranking of Japan’s GDP per capita:
2) Japan’s Deteriorating EducationJapan was a country with a well educated and highly motivated workforce, but not any
longer. English education is disastrous

2) Transform Japanese organizations open and global
3) Rapidly Declining Industrial Competitiveness.

Observations and analysis:

1) Japan’s industrial and education system worked well while Japan was in the imitation and catch‐up mode, but Japan kept this old system too long.

2) Japan’s leaders (industry, government and academia) did not recognize the importance nor made serious efforts to produce ideas that could create new industry and jobs.

3) Japanese institutions and organizations are closed and inward looking. Many of them do not have visionary leaders and lack the human resources that can create new ideas
and new business. Japan has been primarily good at perfecting known technologies.

4) Japanese universities and institutions do not make serious effort to attract and retain top talents from abroad.

5) A majority of young Japanese (men in particular) do not seem to have any great ambition, drive, or confidence. Who are to blame?

6) Japan has not taken seriously the critical importance of Ph.D. level education.

7) Lack of entrepreneurship spirit.

What should Japan do?