@floatybirb No, it wasn’t a conscious policy but it has served the LDP government well. The LDP is a party that mostly recruits sons and grandsons of LDP politicians. Continuity serves them well so they can’t conceive change. The LDP just drifts along. It was evident in the 1980s that the Japanese needed to learn English if Tokyo were to become “the” business hub in Asia. Singapore became that hub. 40 years later, English proficiency index is lower in #Japan than in China and South Korea.