Japan’s residency debate risks turning integration into exclusion

What was once a predictable path toward long-term stability could become a precarious process subject to continuous state evaluation.

最も「英会話力が伸びた」方法は？「ネイティブとひたすら話す」を上回ったのは◯◯【ランキング】

英会話のスキルを高めるために、みんながしていることは？

Japan’s English-language education doesn’t pass the test

An excessive focus on testing students' English ability is turning language learning into a chore, depriving children of the joy and opportunities of intercultural communication.

最も「英会話力が伸びた」方法は？「ネイティブとひたすら話す」を上回ったのは◯◯【ランキング】（2024年回顧）

英会話のスキルを高めるために、みんながしていることは？（2024年回顧）

AI services growing in popularity among younger language learners in Japan

The number of people using AI language tools grew by more than 80% in 2024, a recent survey showed.

TOEICのテスト結果、国・地域別スコアランキング。アジア首位はインドの5位、日本は？

英語能力試験TOEICを実施する国際ビジネスコミュニケーション協会は、テストの制作を担うETSがまとめた国・地域別の平均スコアを発表しました。

最も「英会話力が伸びた」方法は？「ネイティブとひたすら話す」を上回ったのは◯◯【ランキング】

英会話のスキルを高めるために、みんながしていることは？

Workplace Book Reviews: David Noble's Digital Diploma Mills

[PDF] Marketing the Eikaiwa Wonderland: Ideology, Akogare, and Gender Alterity in English Conversation School Advertising in Japan | Semantic Scholar

The English conversation school (eikaiwa) industry in Japan has grown significantly over the past twenty-five years. In this paper I perform a semiological analysis on a set of eikaiwa promotional materials gathered in Tokyo and Kanagawa during the period 1998–2002. This analysis relies on a framework of social modalities (Rose, 2001 Visual Methodologies Sage, London) within which a set of gendered Occidentalized longings (akogare) is discussed. Career development, establishment of relationships with white males, and the potentials for foreign travel and study are highlighted by these eikaiwa promotions. These factors are presented as radical gender alterities that work against the social modalities encountered in Japan. These modalities include a set of rigid life-course expectations and a mode of social regulation that strongly directs women's professional and personal development. While English-language learning and use contain potentials for epistemological challenge to ideologies of gender, the eikaiwa visually emphasize the development of new selfhood (atarashii jibun). In these promotions key signification is performed by white-male and Japanese-female pairings. According to Kelsky (2001 Women on the Verge Duke University Press, Durham, NC), the white male is represented as an agent of personal transformation and liberation associated with the development of new selfhood. The white male embodies an Occidentalist fantasy that is associated with personal freedom, career development, and individuation. Simultaneously, the promotions articulate with the valorization of female agency in the broader Japanese cultural sphere, and with what Kelsky (1999, page 238) terms “emergent erotic discourses of new selfhood”. Where women are featured, in contrast to Western promotional materials, their purpose is to appeal to other women. This is accomplished by presenting famous women in professionally iconic settings. When they do appear, Japanese males are infantalized and marginalized. The eikaiwa are therefore marketed as wonderlands, rich with radical gender alterities, within which the akogare of female students can be realized.