Internationalization in Japan and making friends with foreigners [Street interview]

In this video we hit the streets of Tokyo to conducts some street interviews to find out from Japanese locals whether or not they are open to making friends with foreigners in Japan, how they would do this, and more broadly, what they think of their Japan's path to internationalization.

Watch the street interview video on the City-Cost Japan YouTube channel: 

OK.  All pretty positive stuff.  Let’s be honest though, it would take a brave person to be asked by a foreigner, if they want to be friends with foreigners, and then turn round and say to that foreigner ‘No!’. Certainly, our hosts are too polite for this.

How to become friends? Language, language, and language.

Someone’s got to give on this.  

How deep a friendship can be without the understanding of a common parlance is perhaps something for the philosopher in us to think about.  

In the mad rush of everyday life in Japan though, there’s perhaps no time to get this deep, both in the short-term (I don’t have time for this conversation to take 30 mins when it would normally take five.), and in the long-term (long-term for many a foreigner in Japan might only stretch to a couple of years).  For both sides, the language barrier seems to have deep foundations.  Who’s expected to give, then?  

Common standards would dictate that the foreigner in a foreign land should take the initiative and learn the local language.  Here though, the locals seem to give off the vibe that learning Japanese is going to be too hard for most.  For their part, whilst many are pretty well versed in the grammar of a second language, Japanese people are often too petrified to put it into speech.

Lack of language skills might be easy to put down an aging populace, who perhaps don’t have fond memories of language class (if any at all), and for whom mixing with excitable expats carries little appeal.  But younger generations don’t seem to be faring too well in either.  

Last year, Japan’s Education Ministry reported that English standards were significantly below government targets for high school students, and that some 60% of students don’t even enjoy the subject.  Evidence still, that English classes in Japan are geared up to nothing more than passing some kind of test.

Internationalization in Japan

There seems to be a belief that internationalization is happening in Japan, gradually.  Certainly, tourist numbers in Japan are exploding, but smash-and-grab style shopping trips have accounted for large numbers of late.  As one of the interviewees pointed out, does an increase in tourist numbers really count as internationalization?  

Further tying language and internationalization together is the 2020 Olympics.  Tokyo securing the Summer Games has seen businesses scramble to secure inbound markets by developing services designed to make being over here in Japan a smoother experience, accessible in multiple languages.  

The Japanese public too, is wrapped up in Olympic fever enough to get them down to the eikaiwa to try out a free sample English lesson, or two.  But with the Olympics comes the question of legacy.  Nobody over here seems to be sure what that will be post 2020, and experience shows, that once all the medals have been handed out people are quick to move on.  

Is Internationalization a good thing?

Depends on who you ask, one would think.  

Certainly, among younger generations it sounds exciting, and is surely the best way to increase tolerance and understanding.  

If international terrorism seemed distant to the Japanese people before, last year brought events in Syria and the threat of ISIS, much closer to the Japanese collective conscience.  Together with Europe panicking over border control and some fearsome rhetoric echoing from U.S. Republican debates, is this likely to play on the minds of some members of the public when it comes to talk of opening up immigration?

For now though, on the streets of Japan, the outlook seems positive.  That people took the time to talk with us (in front of camera), and shared their ideas on how to mix with the international community here, is testament to the kind of spirit needed for internationalization.  

Have your say.  Leave your comments below.

Image (cropped to fit)

Takver Flickr License