By Mike Rogers, MarketingJapan, Universal Vision Ltd., and Smart Research 
& James Santagata, Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge

TV as a Mirror of Society

I met the boss of the biggest international television network in the world the other day. He is a Canadian. He travels all over the world and, because he is in the TV business, he told me that one of his favorite things to do in every country was to judge by TV commercials what things were important to that particular society. 

Japan's TV commercials? Insurance for this or that; home sales; automobiles; financial instruments and plans; candy, cosmetics, fast food... Companies like Zurich, Sekisui, Kanebo.... Japanese commercials that soft sell and are emotive commercials.

I think that's right. 

He also told me that he was "astounded" by just how many over the counter drug medication commercials there were on US TV all the time. US TV commercials? Drugs, Cholesterol, Machismo ("my ding-a-ling is bigger than yours" commercials); fast food; commercials to make your dick hard, make it soft, put you to sleep, keep you awake, lower blood pressure, lose weight; not to mention commercials galore for people with extreme anxiety and panic attacks.

Oh, and don't forget the side effects disclaimers! Cholesterol, etc.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Japan ranked toward the bottom of the list in an internationally recognized test of English for nonnative speakers.

Japanese test-takers ranked 40th of 48 countries in 2013 on their average score on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), organized by Educational Testing Service, a private, nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization.

Japan scored an average of 512 points out of a possible 990, placing it between Mexico with 535, and Thailand with 493.

So does this matter? 

The answer is yes and no. Mostly no.

And that is because of the Tip of the Spear or the Tip of the Sword Theory.

What does it take to get into a top graduate school program? 

What is a graduate admissions consultant, what do they do, how do they work, who do they help and can you benefit from working with one?

Today, Adam Markus a Graduate Admissions Consultant with over 16 years experience in international education as a counselor, blogger, instructor, manager, and marketer in the US and Japan joins us.
 
Listen as Adam discusses all of these topics and more...

Since 2001, his clients have been consistently admitted to the world’s top MBA programs.  Would you like to know how he does it?

The number of teachers hired for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program would be doubled in three years under a proposal drafted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to boost Japan’s global competitiveness and nurture international talent.

According to the draft of a midterm report by the LDP’s economic revitalization headquarters obtained Monday, the number of JET teachers would be increased to 10,000 from about 4,360 in 2012. The teachers also would be dispatched to all elementary, junior high and high schools within 10 years.

The JET Program was targeted for wasteful spending by the Democratic Party of Japan’s “shiwake” government revitalization unit before the young party was kicked out of power in the Lower House election in December.

The LDP views the use of native English speakers as vital to improving English-speaking ability at a time when it is moving toward making a passing score on the Test of English as Foreign Language mandatory for entering and graduating from college.

The proposal is in line with the growth strategies Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mapped out last Friday ahead of the July Upper House election. The strategies include globalizing the Japanese workforce and increasing the number of women in it by extending the length of maternity leave to three years from 18 months.

The proposal will be part of Abe’s real basic economic policies, which are being compiled by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy for release in June — just a month before the House of Councilors election in July.

Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten, says mandating that his employees speak English at work was tougher than expected; it slowed meetings and embarrassed senior managers. But Mikitani says he's sticking with it.

With no CG, no invisible wires, and even no magical powers to rely on, a photo posted on Twitter by a 16-year-old high school girl in Japan has gained worldwide attention for its “Matrix”-like special effect, with more than 20,000 re-tweeting to date.

Posted under the username “Chanman,” the picture shows a half-crouching girl with her arms and legs outstretched as if she is casting a spell. Surrounding her are 10 girls jumping in the air and spreading their arms, appearing to be blown away by an invisible force.

When Chanman added the caption, “Makanko-sappo” (a lethal finger beam technique appearing in the famous “Dragon Ball” manga series), the number of views sharply increased.

Chanman and her classmates took the photo to commemorate the end of the school year.

Inspired by Chanman’s Makanko-sappo, similar postings have been growing in number.

Twitter user “Chara” posted a photo looking like “Hadouken,” a special “wave fist” attack used by characters of the popular video game “Street Fighter.”

To communicate in English, TOEFL is vital: LDP panel
Focus urged on speaking, not the written word

English-language education at public schools should shift in emphasis to verbal communications skills, and for that purpose, universities must adopt the Test of English as a Foreign Language for entrance exams, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party’s education reform panel said.

If the TOEFL is introduced in line with the panel’s proposal, it would drastically change public English-language education at junior high and high schools, Toshiaki Endo, head of the panel and a Lower House member from Yamagata Prefecture, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.

“Efforts have been made for years to improve (English-language education at public schools), but little has been changed,” Endo said, arguing such schools have failed to teach students practical English and train them to communicate in the language.

Only 9 percent of Japanese high school students surveyed last year said they strongly hope for success in their careers, a sign that the country's economic woes may be curbing the ambition of its youth.

The Japan Youth Research Institute sent questionnaires to 6,600 high school students of Japan, the United States, China and South Korea between September and November.

The results, released on March 26, showed Japanese students have a much lower drive to succeed than students of the other three countries.

"(The findings show) that they may think it is enough just to get a job," an institute official said. "The weak economy may have contributed to (the results)."

According to the survey, 37 percent of Chinese students, 30 percent of U.S. students and 19 percent of South Korean students strongly hope they will be professionally successful, while only 9 percent of Japanese students hope for the same.

The first proposal from the Liberal Democratic Party's education panel includes establishing "advanced Super Science High Schools (SSHs)" and having universities require applicants to achieve a certain score on the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL), it has been learned.

Advanced SSHs are institutions where university professors specializing in mathematics and science instruct motivated students of high scholastic standing.

The party's Headquarters for the Revitalization of Education, chaired by Toshiaki Endo, will make an official decision on the proposal this month. The goal of the proposal is to implement educational reforms to nurture human resources who can actively contribute to the international community.

The LDP plans to include the proposal in its pledge for the House of Councillors election campaign this summer and is considering preparing legislation to realize it.

The proposal recommends a three-pronged approach for revitalizing the education system: drastic reform of English education, improved science and mathematics, and development of information and communication technology education. The proposal requests about 1 trillion yen to pursue these three strategies.

Specifically, the proposal advocates doubling the number of doctorate degree holders in the fields of science and mathematics to 35,000 a year, on par with the United States. For this, the establishment of advanced SSHs within seven to 10 universities is proposed across the nation.

The plan also recommends increasing the number of SSHs from the current figure of about 180 and placing science teachers in primary schools to interest more students in the subject.

Regarding English education reform, it proposes all public and private universities designate minimum TOEFL scores for each faculty and stipulate only applicants who achieve or surpass those score may take entrance examinations. The minimum scores would be set independently by each university. TOEFL is used to assess English proficiency and is often used as a screening tool for students who wish to study abroad.

In terms of the developing information and communication technology education, the proposal clearly includes the provision of tablet computers as teaching aids to each student at all primary, middle, high and special-needs schools before 2020.