Most culture, politics, education, and business in Japan is conducted in Japanese, and a large majority of people in Japan—some surveys suggest around 90 percen

Most culture, politics, education, and business in Japan is conducted in Japanese, and a large majority of people in Japan—some surveys suggest around 90 percent—do not regularly use English either online or off. The influence of American culture and political rhetoric is not very apparent in the discourse conducted in Japanese. I am an American professor at a Japanese university. When I came to Japan, nearly forty years ago, I thought that the American influence was indeed strong, because, at first, all of my media consumption was in English and most of the Japanese people I interacted with spoke English and had some connection to the United States. After I learned Japanese and broadened my social contacts, though, I realized that I had received a distorted view and that most Japanese people live their lives with little influence from or thought about the United States.