Japan far behind in global language of business | The Japan Times Online

Some background for this article: The title of the article seems alarmist. It isn't like Japan just suddenly fell behind. It's more like Japan is a victim of its own success. Japan has a large and varied higher education sector, so its students don't really need to go abroad to get an advanced education in science and technology. Unfortunately for Japan, its main language happens to be Japanese and not English, and Japan's language and culture remain self-sufficient in the fields where it matters like engineering. This makes for an appalling, nationwide inability to internationalize and integrate culturally with the rest of Asia, and if the government wants to encourage exchange it ought to start and fund more exchange programs with the rest of Asia, not the US or other Anglophone countries of the 'West'.

Here is the Japan Times piece at the link below:

Japan far behind in global language of business | The Japan Times Online