Even as Japan was praised for its English presentations during the bidding process to host the 2020 Olympic Games in September, it is no secret that Japanese are still said to be poor at communicating in English.
It partly stems from Japanese youth's growing introversive tendencies. To counter, high schools, universities and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology are stepping up efforts to encourage students to develop a global mind-set.
Especially, science and technology students have reason to learn English because they at least read research papers and listen to speeches at international academic conferences.
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