Can Japan create a multilingual education system in the future? Japanese language policy currently attaches too much importance to English.

Foreign language education system in Japan attaches too much importance to English as starting from 2020, English classes will be added to National Curriculum Standards for elementary. But is “foreign language education” supposed to be like this? In this session, we will present the current foreign language policy in Japan and the problems associated with it; can Japan create a multilingual education system and what is needed to make it happen. We would like to discuss and debate this issue with you.