The failure of Japanese students in secondary and tertiary education in Japan to reach foreign language learning goals is commonly laid at the feet of poorly trained teachers and ineffective curricular design. Although language education in Japan, can, of course, be improved, this myopic view misses overarching societal factors that have a critical impact on language learning and the "reality" of the language learning experience. Examining societal factors impacting language learning in other countries allows us to draw some preliminary conclusions about the situation in Japan and to speculate on some ways forward, in both the educational and societal realms.
