Analysis of "Native English Speaker in Japan Survey" Results

(Most graphs in this post are redrawn to reflect absolute numbers instead of percentages)

Last year, I encouraged people who were native English speakers in living in Japan, regardless of whether they were naturalized Japanese citizens or not, to participate in a short 26 question survey run by Victoria Ferauge, an American academic expat (and political advocate relating to various nationality issues) who has lived in various parts of the world including Osaka and Versailles, France. Over six hundred (615) valid participants were tabulated from June to August of 2016, and the results were published for the University of Kent on March 24th, 2017 as part of a master's dissertation. I received permission to republish the raw data and add my interpretation here.

Of the questions, the first two questions:

1. Do you live in Japan?
2. Are you a native speaker of English?

… determined whether or not the remaining 24 questions, listed below, would apply.

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Disclaimer: while the collected raw data, initial tabulation, and some of the graphs below were created by Victoria Ferauge, the analysis accompanying each graph below is neither her opinion nor analysis; it is mine, and I bear the responsibility for any misinterpretations, misunderstandings, errors, or deviations from the original researcher's opinion and intent. I encourage people who are interested more in this data to read the original report and contact her directly at <v………@yahoo.com> for questions regarding the original data and report (and to contact me for questions about my interpretation and opinions).

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The Results & Commentary on the

Native English Speakers Residing in Japan Survey

(conducted from June to August 2016)

What is your age?

N=603

I wish the category for "18 to 29 years old" was more granular, because I have a hunch that there is a distinct line between those English speakers who come to Japan straight after higher education (around age 21 to 22) "to see and try living in the world before beginning their real life back home" have a different living style and pattern between those nearing their thirties who have settled in and possibly have a different career from being a worker at an English conversation school, which is generally not viewed as a long term life career choice due to the nature of the industry in 2016. Especially since over 20% of the applicants have stayed in Japan for six (6) years or less, and the survey did not ask when or if the applicants planned on leaving Japan.

What is your sex?

N=603

"Other" is for people who prefer to identify as transgender, intersex, or neither male nor female. The original survey used the term "sex" rather than "gender". The definitions of these two terms are the same to some people, but different to others. While some countries' domestic and even international (ex. passport) identification cards allow for the mark of "X" in the "Sex" field, as of 2016, Japan's domestic and international identification only allow for "M" and "F". Japan will change both domestic and international identification from the sex designated on one's birth certificate if they have official recognized government documentation documenting the change.

What is your relationship status?

N=578

The phrase "legally married" was used in the survey and it did not attempt to differentiate as to which country one's marriage was legally recognized, nor did it attempt to differentiate between common-law or de facto marriages.

What were your parents' occupations?

According to the original report, the researcher

… coded the answers to this question using the broadest categories (0-9) of the ILO's International Standard Classification of Occupations document ISCO-08 …. And then [she] added three categories based on the responses (like “parent”) that did not fit the ISCO classifications.

Fathers

N=505

The interesting thing about this data to me was the disproportionately high percentage of occupations in the "Craft and Related Trade" category #7. It would be interesting to know exactly what sort of crafts and trades these fathers are practicing as a profession.

Mothers

N=506

Again, a comment from the original researcher:

The idea was to get some idea of the socioeconomic status of the migrant's family back in the home country. Was mom a teacher or a lawyer? Was dad a truck driver or an accountant? Something I have never seen a study look at in migrants from North America or Europe or Oceania. Were they upper-class, middle-class, working-class? Can we get a feel for that from the parent's professions?

What is the highest level of education you have attained?

N=564

Technical or vocational schools (which are more popular in some countries such as Japan), were not included. Additionally, there are no questions as to whether one attended an "international" high school or International Baccalaureate® (IB) High School, or whether they spent time in an overseas exchange (留学 {ryūgaku}) program, especially with Japan, as is common with many expatriates.

If you have a university undergraduate or graduate degree in what subject(s) did you obtain your diploma(s)? (Please select all that apply.)

Note that "Engineering" and "IT" are lumped together, whereas people that are actual Professional Engineers, as well as the various differentiations of information technology (system administrators versus software programmers and computer scientists) may object to this generalized association.

What is your monthly after tax income in Yen?

The survey asked for the currency in yen, reasoning that people wouldn't want to do the conversion. However, it did not ask which countries handled their financial assets and how they paid taxes. Also, there was a small most likely typo in the original results were the least significant digit for the low end of the ranges was in the ¥1,000 order of magnitude (4th digit), not the single yen,

Do you own your own home in Japan?

This is perhaps the most surprising statistic to me, as although homes can be flipped/AirBNBed/vacant investments, etc., home ownership indicates strong established roots to a community. It is evidence of the advanced age (and advanced education and professions) of many of the survey participants. The survey did not attempt to ask what type of home: detached or マンション {manshon} ("mansion" shared multi-story condominium / apartment dwelling), and whether the home was urban, suburban, or rural.

Have you ever served in the U.S. armed forces?

The survey did not ask whether one was still serving with the U.S. military (except in the later questions below), and did not ask whether all or part of the military service involved being stationed in Japan. It also did not ask about countries other than the United States, as the survey was intending to judge Japan residents who are U.S. military personnel under SOFA.

Being in the U.S. military while in Japan greatly affects ones level of acclimation and assimilation into the country. This is because not only does Japan limit what one is capable of (most American military defense personal enter and leave Japan without a traditional visa), but the U.S. military also limits its staff: by restrictions on living conditions and what sort of employment and lifestyle you can have.

Additionally, almost all military assignments have a fixed, and often short, assignment period for any one place.

If you have children what language(s) do you speak with them?

The survey did not attempt to drill down as to how much of each language is spoken, nor did they ask about the children's fluency in the language, which would be a key indicator as to whether a family was assimilated into Japanese society and the next generation would live and work in Japan.

What is your country of citizenship?

The survey did not attempt to determine how this citizenship was acquired (natural-born or naturalized). Also, the term "citizenship" rather than nationality was used. While most people think of them as the same thing, there's actually a legal difference between a national and a citizen in some countries (like the United States and Mexico), and some people interpret the term "citizen" in less legal terms (ex. "citizen of the world").

Please list your second country of citizenship (if you have one)

The survey did not attempt to discover if the respondent had more than one nationality, nor did it ask if these extra nationalities were active or being used or which nationality the respondent considered to be their "main" one (if any).

If you are a naturalized Japanese citizen what is your former country of citizenship?

This data actually tracks very closely both to the personal responses and questions we get from individuals who contact this site as well as the indirect data we get from geo statistics from our web analytics. Knowing this site's stats and people I have talked to, I would have expected the number from India to be slightly higher than a single digit. Angola and Costa Rica are obviously surprising, but since both countries columns are not only single digits but literally one person each, I think it is safe to dismiss them as outliers.

Why is America so much higher than Canada and the United Kingdom? Most likely because of the modern State of Japan's (as opposed to the Empire of Japan) intense historical, military, and especially economic relationship with it, greater than any other western country, since the 19th century.

What year did you arrive in Japan?

I often quip that you can categorize foreigners who come to Japan into the following era stereotypes:

The next generation of immigrant? ☺

• 1945+: Those that came in the fifties and sixties came for their country (the Allied forces [U.S.] military).
• 1970: Those that came in the seventies came for God (missionaries).
• 1984: Those that came in the eighties came for the money (the "bubble era").
• 1993: Those that came in the nineties came for the women (relationships)
• 2001: … and those that came after the millennium came for the animé ☻.

Joking aside, I actually believe that a combination of internet, translation technology, and international air travel deregulation, both in the world and in Japan, has contributed to the massive increase in native English speakers in Japan (and in other advanced/advancing countries in the world with languages and cultures very dissimilar to English countries, like Korea and China).

Since then did you leave Japan, move to another country and then return to Japan?

The survey does not attempt to ask how many times a person has done this. There are some people who live a multinational lifestyle where they spend a portion (usually half) of their time in one country and the other half in their home country. For retirees that are sensitive to the weather in their advanced age, often their migration patterns are seasonal.

For others, it is a matter of contract work booked through the internet.

For people that desire to become legally Japanese, being outside of the country for more than 100 continuous days or 150 total days in a 365 day period disqualifies that year from being counted as a "consecutive year of physical residence", which is a qualification for becoming legally Japanese.

If the answer is yes, which country (or countries) did you live in before returning to Japan?

For native English speakers, especially those who worked in Japan as English teachers, much of this graph makes sense. The Republic of Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand are popular destinations for native English speakers wishing to work as EFL teachers in Asia. For native English speaking Europeans who are part of the European Union, the particular country one re-migrates to for work need not be their "home" country. Both New Zealand and Canada are known for having "Citizens of Convenience", where a very large percentage of their national citizens leave to find employment and life overseas (often creating a "brain drain" problem that is large enough to affect their macro-economy).

How many years have you lived in Japan?

Exact numbers for this question are unavailable.

This graph is different from the others in that it lacks information on the number of respondents (N=…), so it is copied verbatim from the original report. I was expecting the largest percentage to be three to six years, with the second largest being six to eleven years.

Perhaps the reason that this survey skews so large towards the 20 to 30 years in Japan (definite long timers) is because of the venues that the survey availability was promoted on (such as this site, Becoming Legally Japanese).

What is not surprising is how long people are staying these days in Japan. Due to globalization and the access to both English and English based entertainment and English speaker networking, facilitated by the internet in the late nineties, living in a country with a very different culture is easier than ever. Technology (such as e-shopping like Amazon) has made it easier and easier for a person to get by without the friction of dealing with a foreign land, culture, and language.

Prior to the late '90s mass availability of the internet, streaming ubiquitous English media, the average time a foreigner spent in Japan was about one (1) to three (3) years, with five (5) years being considered to be a "long timer."

These days, due to technology assists for both the tongue and the soul, the average time appears to be longer than three years, and English language people living in Japan for more than five years is not as unusual as it once was.

What were your reasons for initially coming to Japan?

The two columns that stands out to me here is "Economic" and "Immigration", implying that most native speakers of English come from well-off countries that have many economic opportunities and are politically safe and stable.

What was your immigration status when you originally arrived in Japan?

"Transfer" is abbreviated, for the sake of fitting on the graph, from intra-company transfer, which implies that a multinational corporation sent an employee to work (almost always temporarily) in the Japan subsidiary, and usually has many to most to all aspects of life (including language) taken care of — but not always.

"Tourist" refers to a temporary landing permit, which is not actually a Status of Residence, and depending on one's nationality, can be either 15 days, 90 days, or 180 days, and sometimes can be extended once. There is a maximum amount of times that this permit can be used per year, and you are never allowed to truly life and work freely like a resident can.

SOFA is almost not technically a Status of Residence, and how long and how you can live is directed by the United States military.

If you came to Japan on a work visa, please specify what kind of work visa you had (Instructor, Skilled Labor, Business Manager, Artist…)

Some of these Status of Residences (在留資格 {zairyū shikaku}) seem redundant due to the nature of immigration law changing over time. For example, "Engineering" (which includes both P.E. and software engineering and programming and computer system administration) used to be a separate classification back when I had the status in the 90s. Today, Engineering is lumped together with the "Humanities" status, which includes things such as Japanese to English translation and 英会話 {eikaiwa} (English Conversation) school workers.

If you came to Japan to work describe in your own words the first job you had (job description, employer, part or full-time, permanent or contract or self-employed)

It's not clear why "International School" is zero. Perhaps this category was merged into "English teacher?" Also, the categories here have a section for The Jet Programme's CIR position, but they do not have a separate category for the much larger ALT position. Instead, ALTs are most likely grouped in with "English teacher" (or perhaps "Other").

Did you stay longer in Japan than you originally intended?

This jives with my personal experience and I suspect with anybody else who initially came to Japan under a finite length contract. When you are still learning the language and Japan is new, a realistic person who naturally assume that the barriers to learning and adapting to the culture would be insurmountable and extending that contract or doing something new would be extremely difficult.

If you are still employed in Japan today describe in your own words the job or jobs you have now

The professions listed here may sense when compared to the other graphs showing the average monthly salary in yen and the amount of years one has lived in Japan. The only data here that stood out was the amount of people who claimed to be a religious missionary, especially when you compare this data to the earlier graph showing the amount of people that live in Japan under the "Religion" Status of Residence.

In Japan do you consider yourself to be: immigrant, migrant, expatriate, [or] other?

This is a difficult one to analyze, due to the loaded meaning these terms have unfortunately acquired over time. While the dictionary definitions are clear enough, some of the above terms have acquired both positive and negative connotations, especially in the context of native English speakers.

For example, there are some people who criticize that the terms "expatriate" and "immigrant" have become racially loaded: some critics claim that "expatriate" or "expat" is more likely to be used to describe a person who is white or Caucasian and an "immigrant" or "migrant" is used to describe someone who isn't. "Migrant" is an especially polarizing term as is has become the politically correct term used by the media to obfuscate the differences between a refugee seeking political asylum and "economic migrants" who would not normally be recognized by UN rules regarding countries' obligations to accept them.

The older image of the "expat" lifestyle.

Even the term "expatriate" and especially the clipped "expat" can have negative meanings among those who live overseas: expatriate can often conjure up the image of somebody who is living on assignment (usually very comfortably; in other words, "spoiled") by a large corporation who makes sure that the expatriate is as "inconvenienced" and "challenged" as little as possible by their "sacrifice" of taking an assignment in an exotic and strange locale.

This connotation could have been birthed by corporate terms such as "expat allowance", "hardship stipend", "gated international community" and exclusive ultra expensive clubs that only large corporations and the wealthy can afford. To a person who volunteered to move, live, and work in Japan, it's inconceivable that one would need additional numeration for the "hardship" of living in one of the most advanced, clean, safe, rich, and developed countries in the world such as Japan. "Expats" are thought of being out of touch and shielded from the true adventure and calling of living and working in a foreign land.

These days, however, even English conversion school teachers call each other "expats" (perhaps because they want to be associated with having money and a comfortable life?), so the term's negative connotations has been muted this decade.

Finally, "Japanese" itself is a loaded term which has three possible different defining aspects to it:

A Venn Diagram of the three things most
people think can make a person "be Japanese".

"Race"

This is one's visible appearance acquired through genetics, aka one's "phenotype", colloquially (though technically incorrectly) known as (the social construct of) "race". As it is a low level biological trait it cannot be changed after birth.

Ethnicity

This means the everyday culture and traditions and especially language, in the case of Japanese. In the case of Japanese it is something that can be learned and acquired by anyone and is acquired after one is born — usually the earlier the better (especially for speaking a language without a foreign accent). One's mastery of acquisition is relative and subjective to external observers and difficult (though not impossible) to objectively quantify, evaluate, and compare to others.

Nationality

This is one's legal ties, and the accompanying legal duties/responsibilities and rights, to a nation-state and its government and laws, recognized under international law. Can be acquired, and one's possession of it can be objectively and easily determined.

To a civic/liberal nationalist — such as the current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (安倍晋三 {ABE Shinzō}) — and to the law, however, the only thing that matters is one's legal nationality. They believe in the aspiration towards (the now unfortunately discredited by modern American CRT) "race blind" ideals. If a man or woman loves his country and obeys the law and serves his country, he is Japanese. Period. To the law and a civic nationalist, no matter how much a Japanese-American etc protests that They Belong and They Are One of Them, Japan will kick him or her out of the country as a literal illegal alien if they possess neither the nationality nor visa stamp in their foreign passport, even if their "blood" is 100% Japanese.

"I Have a Dream."

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. — whether you should take Dr. King's famous phrase literally or not depends on your political leanings and the era you grew up.

To a some however, especially a modern Asian-American race activist, the most important definition of "Japanese" is "race". This is technically not the strict scientific definition of "race", but the appearance one has due to the statistical clusters of hereditary genes that determine how one "appears" — also known as their phenotype. This is because having an identity in addition to "generic American" etc. is of extreme personal pride and importance to many multiculturalists and globalists, even though many lack the learned ethnic traits: for instance, the ability to use the language well enough and to survive in the native culture without a connection — real world or digital — to the generic English culture one grew up with. This loss of their ethnic language is usually the natural assimilation that occurs from being a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th+ generation American or Canadian national.

Source: 斎藤成也 {SAITŌ Naruya} & 根井正利 {MEI Masatoshi}

Thus, they will insist, to validate their "ethnic" [sic] identity to the left of the hyphen (ex. "Japanese-American", "Japanese-Canadian" etc.) which is so valuable, they will insist that genes are the most important, if not only, true accepted validator of "true Japanese" and "true acceptance". They will add that not only do they feel that way, but that all Japanese in Japan feel this way too. In other words, some people that believe this need racism to validate their hyphenated identity and their belonging.

Additionally, in order for the diaspora to protect this Identity, whose lynch-pin is the possession of certain hereditary genes, not only will they insist that all Japanese are truly defined by genes, but they will also insist that those who do not possess the hereditary genes are not and will never truly accepted (cannot "be considered") to be truly Japanese. To allow people to be defined as Japanese by either their post-birth acquired ethnicity or their legal nationality threatens the identity credentials of many in their community, therefore they must deny that naturalized Japanese are truly Japanese to protect the definition of their Japanese identity. 

And arguably to be "accepted" in Japan by the vast majority of the Japanese who have lived exclusively in Japan — who like most people in the world do not speak any other foreign language (like English) at a functional level — the most important thing is Ethnicity. While the term "ethnicity" is often used interchangeably with "race" (similar to 21st century usage of "sex" and "gender"), I am using "ethnicity" to refer to the things acquired post-birth through social education that is not acquired through genes or birth: especially one's language.

To the typical Japanese, what is most important in practical day-to-day life for acceptance is Ethnicity, and more specifically within the domain of ethnicity: (the Japanese) language.

If a Japanese person cannot communicate or relate to a person due to lack of language ability, one's skin color/heritage and/or nationality is irrelevant: the conversation, and the ability to know the person beyond their physical appearance, is impossible or reduced to trivial things and stopped by the lack of a civilized and seamless way to exchange the thoughts in one's mind.

I have found this to be true not just by observing how Japanese society classifies both historical and current popular people who are ethnically and/or legally Japanese yet not "racially" Japanese, but also from interviewing hundreds of not so famous, anonymous legally Japanese people — arguably the largest ad hoc unofficial anthropological study of the population that anybody has ever done. This survey, in particular this and the final question, reinforce what I have observed first hand.

Of course, the above claims and opinions are very controversial to the Japanese (and other, especially Asian) diaspora. This is because those born and raised overseas have often been the unfair targets of racial and ethnic discrimination or prejudice in the land they were born and raised in. Thus, they often take solace and comfort in the belief that there is a place where their "identity" is accepted, and that identity is defined by something other than ethnicity, language, or culture: their race.

Do you speak Japanese?

The word "fluent" here is controversial, as many people have differing definitions of "fluent". To some, it means the same thing as "native": a speak and rhythm and vocabulary and pronunciation that is indistinguishable from somebody who was born, raised, and education in Japan in an exclusive Japanese language environment.

To others, the definition of "fluent" is equivalent of "self assessment", and thus can mean anything from "indistinguishable when compared to a native born and exclusively raised in Japan speaker" to the much less impressive "I don't often get into situations where foreign language ability impedes my desire to do something". Thus, if one is capable of ordering from (often a picture) menu in a tourist district and engaging in "bar banter" after work with a few "internationalized Japanese", code-switching in-and-out of Japanese and or heavily interspersing their Japanese or English with words from the other language, this is also considered to be "fluent" by some.

For people who have never lived in Japan and been exposed to both the globalization subculture among expats (and the globalized Japanese who reside in it with the foreigners) and real Japanese society, they are often incredulous that English expats can be so unaware of their actual Japanese ability, to the point where it appears to be dishonest.

But the Dunning-Kruger effect regarding foreign language ability can't occur in the actual land where 99% of the population use the language exclusively, no? Surely how one assesses their language ability in an anonymous, private survey will be more accurate that how one assesses their language for the purpose of employment or peers?

Without their lifeline of the English web,
many foreign globalists couldn't breathe.

You would be surprised. But in the modern 21st century, many expatriates are not consciously aware of how much they rely on technology to assist their (lack of) acclimation to a foreign environment and foreign language. Just because they don't live in a gated community of well-to-do foreigners or have assistants and servants to aid them in interpreting their land, they assume they are "living on their own", when in reality, much like an astronaut needing an environmental suit to survive in outer space, it is actually the Internet cloud and smartphones and streaming Hollywood media that is keeping them from suffocating under foreign stress: functional and emotionally healthy outside their home culture and language.

Similar to how some overweight people often have no real idea how many calories they are consuming per day ("a latte is coffee because it comes from Starbucks, right? Surely that doesn't have that many more calories than normal coffee with sugar and cream!"), expats very rarely measure their consumption of English as done through computer or phone screens during the day.

Whether or not this is healthy in the long term for everybody is debatable. It is also debatable whether just anybody, regardless of their mental and emotional health, can or should attempt to completely assimilate.

According to informal analysis I've done on expats in Japan who claimed to be "functioning" in Japanese (language) society, I've found that of the 16 waking hours of the day, over 85% of their day is done in the English language: as measured by the amount of English web pages, English texts and email, and English media (YouTube, Netflix, etc) they consume.

Amazingly, however, some people, prior to being confronted with the evidence (their web and video browsing history) were under the impression of the exact opposite: they thought only 15% of their day or less (2.4 hours) was being spent using English!

The reason for this disparity is probably due to people only counting real life, flesh and blood, experiences and not being aware of how much time in a modern person's life is spent in front of a screen.

Do you feel integrated or do you not feel integrated into Japanese society?

"Integrated", for those that follow immigration policy, is a political code word that is used to contrast with "assimilation". There are many arguments as to exactly what the word means, but the general consensus is that while both are pro-immigration, "assimilation" is used to describe the immigrant strategy where the immigrant succeeds in society by proactively adopting the ethnicity and culture and language of the land as their own for their daily personal lives (often at the expense of shedding or repressing parts or all of their other ethnicity), and raise their children exclusively using the new culture and language.

This is the strategy used, with great success (debated) by Japanese-Americans and other Asian-Americans in the last 20th century. as measured by the amount of immigrants in America whose prosperity increased with each successive generation of assimilated families: first generation Japanese-Americans tried to ensure that their children's first and native language was English, even if that language learning for their second generation children meant that their Japanese language ability would not be strong enough to compete in the Japanese business world run by first-language speaking Japanese natives. The business world, be it English (less so) or Japanese or another language (much more so), relies on one's deft use of language as a communication tool — and generally a person that speaks it as a second language is usually no match for somebody who speaks it natively.

21st century immigration philosophy, though, is heavily tied to "identity politics" (which emphasizes that having an identity in addition to the generic default of Globalized English and Euro-Americana culture whose common culture reference points lie with Hollywood and English mass-media), now proposes an alternative immigration strategy as an attempt to preserve and strengthen identities other than the "McCulture" of the dominant internet (Facebook/Amazon/Netflix/Google) which often becomes the dominate "ethnicity" of "globalized citizens".

This political opinion stock photo
came from a German source.

"Integration" is contrasted with "assimilation" such that with "integration", the responsibility is for society to accept the immigrant as they are, save for the very low bar of obeying the law (and even then, some exceptions are granted in the view that successive generations will undergo "natural/unforced assimilation" and come around to accepting the host culture's laws as norm).

For those with the means (which are often native English speaking expatriates, who are statistically more likely to be from richer countries and thus have more wealth than an immigrant to Japan from Asia), they often take deliberate measures to prevent their children from "naturally assimilating." They send them to (often very expensive) "international schools" to ensure that their first language (and thus the culture connected to it) of their overseas is English — even if this often means that their children will not have native language and cultural skills good enough to work and live in that society (except for the "globalized" multinational corporations and subcultures that form around globalized long term expats).

In other words, assimilation puts most of the onus of conforming on the immigrant, and integration puts most of the onus of conforming on society. In reality, most of the time its a combination of these two strategies.

Thus, when this question uses the word "integration", it is asking the immigrant if he or she feels that Japan has accepted them despite their ability to assimilate and learn the language or associate in both real life and digitally with Japanese that do not hang out in the "gaijin social circles".

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Thoughts, Conclusion, Thanks, and Caveats

Overall, I'm very impressed with this survey and much of the data surprised me. You may have noticed that I quibbled with the word choice and phrases and omissions in some of the questions, but the pragmatic side of me knows through common sense is that one thing a researcher / anthropologist / sociologist needs to sometimes do is comprise on terminology accuracy for Plain English that the average survey taker can understand.

Sure I know the various definitions of "citizen" and the different interpretations people have between the politically charged terms "integration" and "assimilation", but the average survey taker does not, and some words may evoke odd unintended nuances that sway the results.

I do take issue with the lack of questions designed to ferret out people attempting to game the survey (a common hazard with research in the social sciences). Human nature is such that, when taking a survey about themselves, they often answer in such a way that they present an idealized version of themselves (often times they actually believe they are that person). They want to believe they are fluent in Japanese and they want to believe they are integrated into society, thus they answer as if they are, even though a third party observing from afar would disagree. However, in order to avoid turning off potential useful respondents, there are not many questions that attempt to ferret out reality vs one's imagination as it is difficult to craft such questions without them appearing confrontational, making the survey to tedious to complete, and possibly discouraging participants from completing the essay. Sometimes a larger sample size, and relying on that to minimize false and/or outlying responses, is a better approach.

Furthermore, because this survey was done over the internet, there were no questions or methods designed to ferret out illegitimate responses: people taking the survey who are not actually native English speakers living in Japan. I have no doubt in my mind that not a few responses were high school kids in America who dreamed of one day actually living in Japan and answering the survey as is it represented their future self.

All surveys, however, are subject to some noise and bogus data. Fortunately, the sample size was large enough that the legitimate responses diminished the impact of the illegitimate responses. (No margin of error for the data was provided in the original report though)

Over six hundred people took this survey. That's a very large sample, considering that of the two million plus (2,000,000+) non-Japanese living in Japan, only a fraction of those (less than 100,000) could be considered to be "native English speakers": the vast majority of immigrants in Japan are native Chinese/Mandarin and Korean speakers, and then after that native speakers of languages originating from southeast Asia.

I'd like to both thank and congratulate Victoria Ferauge for her excellent and enlightening survey and report, and allowing me to cooperate with her in publicizing and publishing it.

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