Japan needs to make bigger efforts to promote its culture and gain public support for the promotion of Japanese-language education overseas, according to a linguistics scholar who has taught the language for more than 40 years in the United States.

Princeton University professor emeritus Seiichi Makino, a recipient of the annual spring decorations awarded by the Japanese government this April, has taught Japanese since the mid-1960s to students in America.

In a recent interview with The Japan Times, Makino said he feels "something is lacking" in Japan's policies for promoting language education which, he said, is attracting fewer numbers of Japanese-language students at U.S. colleges.