Japanese people are not merely shy...they are shy or too careful in communicating with people outside their group. This can be seen even in their communication with Japanese. This is so-called uchi to soto (inner vs. outer). However, once they get familiar each other, Japanese intend to communicate very closely, since they are not outsiders any more.
I would like to recommend you to read Chie Nakane's "Japanese Society". This book was published many years ago but has been considered as one of the best in Western academic field and still quoted a great deal.
From the articles like Newsweek, it's obvious that Japanese use internet less often(? sorry for my English grammar) than American as you say,and especially this fact is clear in the level of childrens'world.
Here, I often wonder why American children could use computers so often, sometimes in a very professional way? I mean,how could they get THEIR computers?
Usually Japanese parents are quite eager to educations or their childrens'demands, and I 've been thinking that American parents do not spend lots of money on children,but is this thought fault? Still computer itself is expensive,and not so many Japanese parents can afford that. If the cost would be down, it would be used like carrying phone among young people now,but the time has not come yet in Japan I think.
When I want to e-mail to someone, I have to use my son's computer while he doesn't use it. I'm thinking about buying my own for work and private use. I have no idea what % of Japanese people are using Internet and e-mail, but as far as I know, or this is because we can somehow manage to communicate in English, it seems there are people nuts about this way of communication along with other gears like a portable phone and a fax machine. What you experienced at school must have disappointed you; it's partly because of Japanese people's characteristic attitude toward communication and also we haven't had proper lessons of communicating in Engllish. School English taught in Japan is still grammar-based and unfortunately there are few teachers who can teach communication, although this is only from my impression. At a junior high English level, I'm afraid students are not capable of conveying in English what they want to unlike in mother tongue. Because they are not taught communicating skill at school and their vocabulary is limited.
I am really interested in helping students to have fun by studying English. And I want to be a go-between for the students struggling with a boring English lesson. Japan is often said to be an advance country, but in what field? Technology? Yes. Yet we must think English education at most schools is far retarded in teacher training, teaching method, and materials.
This morning I found your article during reading a paper. When I finished reading, I felt a lot of sympathy with your view. Now I could not live without e-mail, too.
The other day, I was traveling in Hokkaido alone, and then I got to know an English man who was traveling from London at Youth Hostel. I am a poor English speaker and writer like this, but I talked to him because he was alone though most of people in Youth Hostel had a conversation. We had a very nice time, and the next day, we climbed the mountain together.
Now we are sending e-mails each other. My English is poor, so it takes much time to type an e-mail. But I am enjoying it, because he is sure to respond to my mail. I really think the importance is not whether English is good or poor but whether there is a mind to promote a interchange or friendship or not.
I hope Japanese people including me will be able to get to know others without a go-between. For this, first of all we need change our character ' shy',. don't you think so?
My hometown is far away from big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. It needs an effort to get myself involved in an English environment. If I don't use English everyday such as reading a newpaper, listening to tapes, writing in Englsih and so on, I easily lose vocabularies from my mind.
That's why I like exchanging mails with many people. And it's interesting to find differences and similarites from mails I get.
So I really agree with the first paragraph you wrote in the paper. But I doubt that the reason the Japanese people are not good at communicating in English comes from their character. In my case, when I don't have a common topic with a person who sits next to me, I don't feel like enjoying chatting with him/her. I don't know how to talk to the person and what topic to share with the person. Maybe the Japanese people don't have a custom to speak to a stranger easily in a bus or a train. It's not their character. It's not caused by their poor English. We don't get used to speak to a stranger. We aren't easy going people. We value a distance between the stranger and us at the first encounter.
I always stress people in chat room of AOL that you should join the English forum for international culture exchange but people always say I can not because I don't know English.
As you already recognize, education in Japan has many serious problems. Why do we have to learn English as it is? No one can persuasively answer this question. The Ministry of Education foolishly keeps maintaining that English education here is needed to "make Japanese society internationalized." Everyone here is talking about "Kokusaika" without asking its true meaning. Some Japanese cultural anthropologist used to say wisely that nothing smells "unkokusai (shit-stinking)" worse than the "kokusaika." I think he is more than 100% right. Most Japanese know that they can do anything without English. It is also the case with my students. They know that English is NOT a must if they practice medicine, not make research. I do not blame them. As you really know, Japanese society tends to be more ultra-nationalized with "propaganda" of necessity of "internationalization." This is much more obvious when you look at Japan from Southeast Asia. My research field is in the Philippines. The country teaches us many essential things in terms of language teaching. There is no limit of my interest. I was once told that the Japanese people are bananas. It took me some time before I was able to understand the comment. What it meant was: The Japanese look yellow, but they think white. "Kokusaika" means, not to be white, but to be color-free. This is where the Internet enters, I believe.
You don't have to doubt anything at all, as long as you like to learn a foreign language as if you wear a "burando-shohin" like Chanel, Gucci, Loui Vuitton, Prada, and so on. But this is not the way it should be. Why do we learn foreign languages? Simply in order to know ourselves. We need a mirror clear enough to look at ourselves in.
There are many reasons that the Japanese are not good at using English. Apparently shyness, as you mentioned, is one, but also lack of articulateness should not be ignored. I think we should teach how to articulate in Japanese well before we teach English, like on elementary school levels. So this is not simply a matter of teaching English on high school or college levels. The problem we face now is much more serious, I should say. Lack of articulateness may be more advantageous to the Establishment, and you see the way of education in Japan, overemphasized memorization. Most of Japanese college kids assume that learning English is only to memorize the meanings of English words. Teaching English as a second language to the Japanese is much more than teaching English grammar, words, pronunciation. The name of the game is cross-cultural communication.
I am very interested in your guts in doing "Go-between" between US and Japan .
We Japanese are in a very severe standpoint in economy, in politics and in foreign policy . We are now losing some sort of confidence.
I would like to receive your frinedly request to Japan, Japanese and people surrounding Japan.
You wrote something about understanding other culture, especially relationship between Japan and the United States, didn't you? The reason why I write to you is that I'm also interested in understanding other cultures. The knowledge of other cultures or worldwide horizon are necessary from now on, I think.
Specially, in my case, it is need because I want to be a teacher. Do you think so?