The fact of the matter is that fewer people in Tokyo are able to do business in English than in many other big Asian cities, like Shanghai, Seoul or Bangkok.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Increasingly, corporate executives who don't speak Japanese are coming into Japan. Unlike their predecessors, they expect their employees to be able to communicate in English.
If Japanese companies don't reform drastically and implement English as their daily business language, the economy will only continue to contract.
Japan has only 100m people. Asia has 4bn. At least one-third, maybe nearly half, will become middle class, and this is a big opportunity for Japanese businessmen.
Compared with U.S. cities, Japanese cities bend over backward to help foreigners. The countryside is another matter.
I actually feel like the phrase 'big in Japan' is not appropriate for me. The reason is that there are more people who sympathize with my practice in America than there are domestically in Japan.
Tokyo may have more money and Kyoto more culture; Nara may have more history and Kobe more style. But Osaka has the biggest heart.
Basically, people in other countries don't want to have to work quite as flat-out as they do in Japan.
Working in Tokyo has convinced me that, contrary to what people think, it is actually one of the world's most beautiful cities.
Japanese is a very difficult language.
During the 1980s, when Japan's economy was roaring and people were writing books with titles like 'Japan is Number One,' most Japanese college students didn't make the effort to become fluent in English.
No opposing quotes found.