Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deliberately includes "insiders", agents of change who are involved in educational reforms because these are perspectives most often lost in the literature in English. It focuses squarely on present-day Japan's largest dilemma, shared with countries around the world: how to meet the challenges and reap the benefits of globalization. In order to highlight the characteristics of Japan's approach to English education, sketching out different approaches taken by other Asian countries would serve as a useful reference point for the readers. Since overcoming the English disadvantage is such a large component of being "global" for Asian countries with a non-English national language, especially for a country with a strong national language like Japan, it examines the Japanese educational dilemma of meeting the global challenge through the window of English.