Nippon dotcom just reported that a "survey found that Japan currently ranks eighty-seventh out of 113 non-English-speaking countries and regions for English language abilities. This is a fall of seven places from last year and relatively low among Asian countries." In a discussion I saw, one Japanese noted that IT competitiveness is also declining. Another stated that the problem was actually that Japanese do not need English.
Some Japanese professors have agreed with me that Japanese do actually need English. Poor IT is also connected to this, because English is essential in IT. Our son is a key person in one of Japan’s top global companies because of his combination of systems engineering and ease with foreign languages.
Japan's economic future depends on tourism and increasing foreign residents. In my bilingualism and intercultural communication classes with English majors now, students understand the need.
"Dual Nationality in Japan: Learning to Love Ambiguity" - new upload to Humanities Commons, which has a Mastodon instance.
Dual nationality is in the news again in Japan, where parents of happy-go-lucky haafu kids don't want the light to shine (haafu has a mostly positive meaning). Deeply in Japanese culture, custom is stronger than law, and so is unspoken consensus. Nearly everyone benefits from dual nationality. Though it is against the law, no country wants to lose productive young citizens by forcing them to choose. The issue has been smoked out by cases of famous people. In the 2020 Olympics, haafu Sky Brown - raised in Japan - competed for the UK. Naomi Osaka renounced her American citizenship to compete for Japan. She illustrates the strain of having to choose between national allegiances or parts of one's multicultural identity.