To Doreen Simmons, who for more than 20 of her 28 years in Japan has been an editor in the International Affairs Department of the Diet, the idea of Japan adopting English as its second official language sounds "totally unrealistic."
The idea would make a lot more sense to her if public figures such as Diet members and business leaders were already using the language freely. And certainly, jobs like hers -- rewriting and correcting letters and speeches translated into English for inter-parliamentary activities -- would be a lot more straightforward if the number of competent English-users increased.
But the question is, she says: "How? Realistically, how to achieve the goal?