This volume explores the role, status, and uses of English in Japan and examines how globalization impacts language practices and educational policies in that country. Part 1, “English in the education system,” explores the relationship between the English language and educational policy and practices. In Ch. 1, Mai Yamagami & James Tollefson examine the representation of globalization and users of languages in specific forms of public discourse and investigate the role of these discursive representations in English-promotion policies. In Ch. 2, Aya Matsuda focuses on perceptions of the functions of English as an international language among high school teachers and students in Japan. She found striking differences in their views, especially with respect to the importance of English for Japanese high school students and the goals that students and teachers have for their English courses. Alison Stewart & Masuko Miyahara (Ch. 3) explore the concepts of identity that are expressed by curriculum planners, teachers, and students concerning the role of English language teaching in the process of globalization at a Japanese university. Yvonne Breckenridge & Elizabeth Erling (Ch. 4) look into the lived experiences of English language teachers from English-speaking countries and explore how these teachers both resist and perpetuate the idealized notion of the native speaker. In Ch. 5, Ryuko Kubota investigates the perspectives and experiences of Japanese adults learning English outside of educational institutions.

Part 2, “English in society and culture,” focuses on the uses and meanings English has in popular culture and the public sphere. Yasukata Yano (Ch. 6) examines the presence of English in the Japanese language and the influence of English on linguistic and pragmatic structures in the use of Japanese. In Ch. 7, Laurel Kamada turns to examine the perceived position of English from the perspective of a group of girls of mixed Japanese and “white-foreign” parentage. She demonstrates how these participants' access to English and other forms of cultural capital allows them to empower themselves through their identity work as mixed-ethnic and multilingual. In the next chapter, Andrew Moody & Yuko Matsumoto (Ch. 8) examine the characteristics of the ideal speaker of Japanese English as portrayed in “language entertainment” television. They found that such a genre of Japanese television presents images of Japanese speakers who are both highly trained in their professions and highly proficient speakers of English. In the final chapter (Ch. 9), Phillip Seargeant examines the visual display of English in the Japanese social landscape by probing into attitudes towards such language display and by considering how the widespread use of English in the public sphere is perceived by the Japanese citizens. He shows that the visual display of English in Japan points to an emergent, albeit relatively restricted, multilingualism. Overall, the volume contains a very good selection of well-written and well-argued papers, and presents a wide range of interesting issues concerning the impact of globalization on language, society, and education in Japan.