Japanese society has a love–hate relationship with English. Many develop an
antipathy toward English, bred through preparing for demanding examinations that
focus on the intricacies of grammar. And yet many Japanese will declare their
devotion to mastering English in order to ‘internationalize’.
What does this all say about the role of the Humanities, foreign language teaching
(here understood as English language instruction), and higher education in Japan? I
discuss the role of English and how it relates to nationalist attempts to protect
Japan from an English (i.e. foreign) invasion. My argument is that the weakness of
foreign language instruction in Japanese higher education can be traced to a problem
of motivation: when language is studied to please someone else (e.g. educational
authorities, corporations, a vague sense of the national collective), enthusiasm for
the humanistic impulse of self-edification is hampered. Japan offers us lessons
about how humanistic endeavours can fall prey to nationalist and economistic agendas.
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