If you go to Europe, you’ll find most young people speak pretty fluent English, and they read a lot of books in English as well (which leads publishers of books translated into their various countries’ languages to lament the fact that sales aren’t so good). But most young Japanese are still not good at handling English outside of school—whether it be speaking, reading, or writing. And this is a major problem. If you leave this kind of distorted educational system in place, I don’t think even including English study starting at the elementary-school level, a fairly recent move in Japan, will
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