Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs

・Willingness of Japanese people to go abroad is probably less than before. It could be probably due to social unrest overseas which discourages them to take risks and make them rather stay safe in Japan. But it is probably caused by Japan’s economic situation as well. Decades ago, the Japanese could afford to pay for travel, send their kids and employees overseas for education. But now, many Japanese can not afford to do the same. ・Technological advancement has made it less necessary to go abroad. You can discuss online and work remotely. Much less need to travel, live and work abroad.

・Online works well for those who are already internationally experienced and can collaborate globally. But how about those who are yet to be developed to be international? The question is “Can people become global leaders online without actually going overseas?”

・Actual living and working experience abroad can not be substituted by online meetings with foreign colleagues. In order to develop people as international professionals, we need to provide non-Japanese surroundings, enough length and enough frequency of exposure to such surroundings. Therefore, online experience alone is not sufficient. ・Most Japanese can survive an one-hour online meeting in English but they need to be immersed in the global culture all day everyday and survive in order to become international leaders.

・However, we may be able to create an online environment that could provide similar experience abroad through a tie-up session with foreign countries in the similar time zones or an advanced VR/AR games etc. and by doing it for a long time with enough frequency.

・For those Japanese who speak fairly good English, companies should encourage them to use more English among themselves. If the topic is not so heavy and complicated, they should practice English among themselves. Peer pressure is a strong force for the Japanese. If their colleagues have better English communication skills, they would feel pressure to catch up. ・In Germany, Italy, France, Canada etc, people talk among the same country people in their native language but when a foreigner who does not understand the local language joins the conversation, they can easily switch the language to English. Somehow, many Japanese people do not/can not do that. It is not due to the language issue. It is an attitude issue. Many foreigners do not speak English well either but they don’t care about the level of their English and still try to communicate. But many Japanese have this attitude of hesitancy, shyness and exclusion of foreigners. It has to be changed if they are to be international leaders.

・In Japanese schools, English is still a subject that students learn about. But English should be a tool with which students can learn and express themselves beyond Japan. The positioning of English language should be changed in the Japanese education system.