Despite required study in English from elementary school on and the country's stature as one of the world's leading exporters, Japanese professionals continue to have on average surprisingly poor English language skills.

One study by Japanese firm Recruit Agent cited in a recent Reuters article found that only 9 percent of over 1,100 white-collar workers surveyed claimed to be able to communicate in English at all, with most others rating themselves "Barely" able to function in speaking or listening.

A new Chronicle of Higher Education article cites one cause for poor language learning to be the declining number of Japanese students currently pursuing study abroad in English-speaking countries. For instance, the number of Japanese students in the United States has dropped almost 50 percent over the past 14 years. The article mentions a number of reasons beyond the well-known factor of an aging population in the country including--

• The high costs of study abroad in what are economically difficult times
• Difficulty in transfer of academic credit from study abroad
• Reluctance of Japanese universities to waive fees for students who study abroad
• Lack of value traditionally given to foreign degrees by Japanese businesses

Times are changing, however. Necessity is driving change in a world where English is the language of business and in times when a high exchange rate for the yen is leading more and more Japanese companies to pursue operations in other countries.

According to Recruit Agent, nearly half of Japanese companies with current plans for hiring will require business English skills, compared with 19 percent in 2009. This trend was led by the country's leading online retailer, Rakuten, which in 2010 announced that employees must be ready to adopt the country's new official language of English by next year or face being fired or barred from promotion.

And on a more cheerful note, following a summer university-business forum held by Nippon Keidanren, Japan's largest business federation, a new, if small, scholarship program for study abroad has been announced. The federation's Global 30 group, which is seeking to internationalize Japanese univesities, will sponsor awards of 1 million yen (just under $13,000) to thirty students enrolled at thirteen different Japanese universities and seeking to study abroad.

"Awareness of this problem is growing, I think," says William Saito, a venture capitalist and adviser to Japan's ministry of education quoted in the Chronicle article who himself sponsors four scholarships to the United States each year. "I'm seeing a lot more companies this year using English as a hiring criteria, and a lot more discussion at the university level."

 —Lia Nigro, TOEIC USA Team