In recent years, Japan has been faced with increasingly tough competition especially with Korea, China, India and other emerging countries.
The mounting concern about the lack of Japanese human resources with language and other communication skills has given rise to the debate on the need for "global human resources development." However, the debate is encumbered by the following problems.
Firstly, "global human resources development" has tended to be equated with "language education." Curriculum changes in English-language teaching have been introduced at junior and senior high school levels and English is to be made compulsory at primary schools. However, little appreciable progress has been achieved to date.