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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the relationship between national identity and foreign language education. Analysing changes in English textbooks used in Japan since the post-war period, this paper argues that the focus has shifted from cultural input to output, reflecting the evolution of Japanese identity.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the relationship between national identity and foreign language education in Japan. English language classes have continuously been part of the compulsory education in Japanese middle schools for more than seventy years, and English is the first foreign language learned by the majority of the Japanese population. However, it has been pointed out by many scholars that the level of English language competency in Japan has never been at a satisfactory level. According to data provided by the ETS in 2019 on the average score of TOEFL, Japan ranked 27th out of 29 countries in Asia. In response to such a situation, the Japanese government introduced a large-scale reform in English education in 2020. As a result of this reform, English lessons were officially made mandatory in elementary schools, while the total number of hours dedicated to English was increased throughout the nine years of compulsory education. However, it was not only the increase of English language classes that characterised the reform. The contents of the English language textbooks used in Japan were also revised significantly. Indeed, Japanese English textbooks have gone through several phases of revision since the post-war period. The paper analyses how the contents of major English textbooks used in Japanese schools have changed from the 1950s to the 2020s. Based on the methodology of critical discourse analysis, it traces changes in terms of the main topics, characters, and images used in textbooks after each phase of revision. The purpose of the analysis is to investigate how Japanese national identity has impacted English language education in that country, and what the latest reform suggests in terms of the role of Japan vis-a-vis the rest of the globe. It will be argued that the focus in English language education has shifted from an outbound to an inbound flow of people, and from cultural input to cultural output which demonstrates the growth of interest in transmitting new values to the external world. It will be concluded that this change in language education discourse reflects the evolution of Japanese identity within the international community.