International Education Policy in Japan in an Age of Globalisation and Risk

Book excerpt: In International Education Policy in Japan in an Age of Globalisation and Risk, Robert Aspinall analyses the ways in which Japanese government policies on English language education and the promotion of Study Abroad have been implemented in schools and universities throughout Japan. The disjuncture between the aims of policy and the realities on the ground faced by individual teachers and students is explored in detail. Education policy designed to help to prepare Japan for the challenges of globalisation constantly comes up against institutional inertia, norms of teaching and learning, and concepts of national culture that obstruct the mastering of foreign languages or the acceptance of cultural, ethnic or linguistic diversity.