English as the second official language 3
“English as the Second Official Language of Japan?”: Globalization, Hegemony of English,
and Japanese National Identity
Globalization connects people and communities around the world which are currently
divided by nation-state borders. Globalization is accelerating communication between people
with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Today international and intercultural
communication, business communication, and communication in academics, are most likely to
happen in English language contexts. People are eager to learn English not only in the countries
in which English is institutionalized because of their colonial experiences but also in other
countries in which English is not used for daily communication.
Globalization cannot be discussed without dealing with the notions of nation, culture,
and identity. Nation, national language, and national identity are politically and culturally
constructed (Anderson, 1991). Nationalism makes a nation (Gellner, 1983). The nation-state
creates national language, which is often used as one of the strongest national and cultural
symbols. Through the educational system, the nation-state disseminates nationalist ideology. At
school children learn the “national culture” by studying the standardized national language, the
“invented” (Hobsbowm, 1983) national history, traditions, and rituals (Foster, 1991). In that
process, people come to feel “natural” about belonging to one nation and speaking the national
language, or, in short, people develop their national identity.
Globalization, however, puts the nation-state in a dilemma. Under globalization, many
nation-states are urged to promote both their national culture and also English—a foreign
culture—at school. The state supports English by starting to offer English classes as early as
primary school and making it practically a required subject for students.
In January 2000, an advisory commission to the late Japanese Prime Minister
Obuchi—21 seiki nihon no kousou kondankai (Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21
st
Convention