Abstract
This study investigates the history of English language education in Japan over the past 150 years. For this purpose, tabulated representations have been devised which illustrate the educational events in each historical era alongside key national and international events and trends. This is a means of illustrating how local education is a microcosm of the society and the world around it, and the manner in which globalization has an impact upon it. In tracing the inter-relatedness between education, society, politics and economics at the local and global levels, various issues are raised which explain why changes have been made in English language education. Among these issues are the periods of immense popularity of English in Japan, seen by some as "linguistic imperialism" (Phillipson, 1992), yet in the early part of Japan's modernization as "a product of the struggle against imperialism" (Brutt-Giffler, 2002, as cited in Park, 2004, p.87). The tables clarify these two polarized stances and give insights into the fluctuating periods of popularity and decline over time in English language education in Japan.

Keywords. English language education in Japan, globalization of English language teaching, Japanese 'macro' events and English education

Introduction
This study investigates the history of English education in Japan by describing and critically analyzing the historical changes over the past 150 years. It addresses the general history of English education in Japan and is organized according to the various eras of the Japanese Imperial Calendar, similar to literature which refers to the "Victorian age" or "Kennedy years" in British and American contexts. Looking back through history, I will attempt to trace the complex influences upon language education over the years and show how they may shape the current situation. It is argued in this combination of perspectives that influences upon general English education over the last 150 years may help to understand the current complexities of the language education. History is seen in this section as referring to not simply what happens in the English classroom, but what has happened socially, politically and economically around it.

In terms of the structure of this paper, it is divided into three parts. Firstly, the relationship between globalization and English language education will be explained from a wider perspective including not only in Japan but also all over the world. The second part will look at the world history from the aspect of the "Great Navigation" Period (Urabe, et al., 1995) and the colonial period from the end of 15th century in Europe. It also describes how Asian countries were influenced by Europe during this period of time. Finally, the third part will move on to the history of English education in Japan which mainly focuses on the following four eras: Meiji (1868-1911), Taisho (1912-1925), Showa (1926-1988) and Heisei (1989-today). Each era contains some significant social events which are not only domestic but also international in origin and investigates how those macro events influence English education in Japan.

1. Globalization and English Language Education
In this section, the history of English education in Japan will be investigated, focusing on the globalization of English language teaching and the position of foreign language education in Japanese society. According to Giddens (1990), globalization can be defined as follows:

In terms of language education, Imura (2003) expresses a similar view, saying that foreign language education and social events in the world are closely related to each other. The history of English education in Japan is, however, not the exception to this inter-connection between world, 'macro', events and the effects they have had on local education, the 'micro'. Looking back in history, according to Block (2004, p. 75), some researchers think that the clearest effects of globalization started in the 15th century "when Europeans began to map colonize the world". This process of colonization was accompanied by the globalization of the English language which Phillipson (1992) terms as "linguistic imperialism". However, Brutt-Giffler (2002) recently contradicts this connection between colonization and the enforced spread of English:

Taking this alternative stance, the history of English language education in Japan may be viewed as being partly based on Brutt-Griffler's idea of a "struggle against imperialism", but also, I would argue, as a struggle for imperialism in which English, and its teaching, have been at various times in history regarded as positive and negative influences on society. To explain this apparently complex "struggle", it is necessary to outline how English education was introduced to Japan and how it has been operating in this country from the mid 1800s with respect to the inter-connection between world, 'macro' events and local Japanese 'micro' events. Consequently, such a detailed and reflective account of the history of Japanese language education requires, as Phillipson (1992) and Pennycook (1994) advocate, the supplementary description of a variety of macro and micro social, political and economic issues all influential upon language education. This creates a descriptive framework for the interpretation of the varying states of English language education through time, a seemingly inter-connected 'mesh' of events which show how educational trends and policy decisions have been porous to national and international events.

2. World History in the Great Navigation Period
Before giving a detailed description of the history from mid-1800s, I will briefly outline some significant incidents in the world before and around that period of time. Urabe et al (1995) term the few centuries from the end of 15th century as the "Great Navigation" Period in Europe. During this time, Europeans explored Africa, America and Asia and discovered new passages for global commerce. They also colonized vast areas of the world, creating economic zones, such as the establishment of East Asian Company in India by Britain in 1600, which were primarily of benefit to European producers and consumers.

Nakano (2004) traces the historical relationship between Japan and western countries around this period. The Japanese government had banned commerce with other countries except Holland and China for almost 210 years from 1603 to the beginning of 1800. The government, called Tokugawa Bakufu (1603-1867), ruled Japan for more than 250 years, determining the political and economic stance, that of isolation of the country, towards the rest of the world. Due to various reasons, including pressure from the West, it returned this power to the Emperor, Meiji, in 1868. Although there had been relative domestic peace and stability in the Tokugawa Bakufu period in Japan, there were few opportunities to import innovations in science and technology from Europe and the United States. In contrast, while Japan was isolated from the world, the Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain at the end of the 18th century and after Britain started to export industrial machinery from 1825, this movement spread to other European countries and the United States (Urabe, et al, 1995).

Urabe et al (1995) also describes that in the 19th century, after European countries embarked upon their own Industrial Revolution, they began to invade Asia to find new markets. In South East Asia, for example, the colonization by Holland, Britain and France proceeded and only Thailand kept independence at that time. In East Asia, China lost the Opium War (1840-1842) with Britain and then the Arrow War (1856-1860) with Britain and France. Thereafter, China was forced to sign treaties with European countries which were fundamentally detrimental to their political and economic sovereignty. This is concisely described by Urabe et al (1995) who state that the most recent turning point in the modern history of Asian countries is the nineteenth century resistance against the European invasions and the subsequent struggle to overcome crises which were a result of that resistance. In essence, this period of resistance meant that Asian countries needed to adopt European civilization and reform their own traditional systems. Japan was faced with a similar situation to other Asian countries at the end of the Tokugawa Bakufu period, a time in which social, political and economic systems needed to undergo drastic internally-driven reform, yet were predominantly motivated by pressure from external, that is, foreign governments. The next section will describe English education in this period.

3. History of English Education in Japan
This section is divided into four parts according to the various Japanese Imperial Eras because Japanese commonly view history in these time blocks. In Japan, a new era is usually made when the new emperor succeeds the throne. The first part of this section is the Meiji Era lasting almost 40 years from 1868 to 1911. The second part is the Taisho Era from 1912 to 1925 which, at 13 years, is relatively short. The third part is the Showa Era from 1926 to 1988, at approximately 60 years, and the fourth is the Heisei Era, the current era from 1989 to the present.

To investigate the relationship between social, political and economic events (the 'macro' events) and English education in Japan, a table has been formed containing three items: (1) the year according to the western calendar, A.D., (2) its equivalent Japanese Era, (3) events related to English Education in Japan and (4) social, political and economic events. This table is an adaptation of Imura (2003) from the Japanese, simplified according to my purposes. Before the Meiji Era (1868-1911), there was a crucial incident in 1853 for the Tokugawa Bakufu government. Nakano (2004) describes how Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry came to Japan bringing a letter from American President Millard Fillmore asking for the establishment of a commercial relationship with Japan. The technology and the military power of the United States seemed to be far more advanced compared to Japan at that time. The huge gap between the two countries can be imagined from the following quotation.
There was Perry with his four "black ships of evil", thundering an ominous salute at the Japanese coast by firing his cannon. And there were the Japanese, lined up on the shore, armed with swords and old-fashioned muskets. (Buruma, 2003, p. 11).

The gap between the two countries can be also seen in the presents which they exchanged after Commodore Perry was allowed to come ashore. The gifts from Japan to America were "finely worked treasures" such as "rich brocades, porcelain bowls, lacquer boxes" and "fans" (Buruma, 2003, pp. 12-13), whereas the presents from America to Japan were "a telegraph and a miniature train" (Buruma, 2003, p. 13). Buruma (2003) compares these presents and comments:

Ishikawa (1997) considers the visit of Commodore Perry to have been a trigger to the opening of Japan, since in 1854 he succeeded in concluding the treaty. However, Gakken (1999) states that this treaty was unilateral, favoring the United States and containing many disadvantages for Japanese international trading rights. Some examples of this were that Japan was not authorized to determine the customs duties by itself. Also, westerners residing in Japan were exempt from local prosecution if they committed a crime due to a clause in the treaty stating "extraterritoriality" for foreign nationals. In 1858, Japan concluded similar treaties with Britain, Holland, Russia and France but, after the change of government in Japan, it was quickly realized that a renegotiation of the original terms was necessary for the long-term development of the Japanese economy. In order to revise the treaties, the Meiji government sent selected Japanese to Western countries to study because it was important for Japan to have a similar standard of technology, politics and education (Gakken, 1999), as well as linguistic competence. Foreign language education in Japan itself was closely related this project as well since foreign languages were introduced to the university curriculum and subjects themselves were taught in English.

3-1 English Education in the Meiji Era
English education in the Meiji Era can be divided into two stages: the first stage from 1868 to 1881, and the second from 1883 to 1905. The reason is that the first and the latter halves contain different characteristics in foreign language education. The first stage can be summarized as being an 'English boom', whilst the second stage a 'backlash' to the English boom. The detailed description of each stage is explained in the next part.

The first stage of the Meiji Era contains the first English boom in Japan and is closely related to government policies. In 1868, Tokyo was adopted as the capital of Japan from Kyoto and the Meiji Era started. Buruma and Margalit (2004, p. 3) highlight the feature of this era as being a "radical transformation" in society, politics and commerce. This transformation is called the Meiji Ishin, or Meiji Restoration, which was mainly directed by the government (Gakken, 1999). It entailed the whole country embarking on a process towards westernization, referred to as Bunmei Kaika, "Civilization and Enlightenment" (Buruma and Margalit, 2004).

In terms of education in this era, the Ministry of Education was established in 1871, one of their first decisions affecting English language education being to send students abroad. Significantly, this move towards acquiring foreign knowledge also entailed sending female Japanese abroad, among whom was an eight-year-old girl called Umeko Tsuda, the future founder of a famous Japanese university later in her life. Around this time, English language education entered into its boom period because of the government policies. In addition, in 1872, a report called "The use of English as the official language in Japan" was written by Mori who was the first Minister of Education in Japan. At that time English became the medium of instruction for all subjects in Kaisei School which is the current Tokyo University. In a move which further showed the government's desire to catch up with educational practices in the West, David Murray (1830-1905), a mathematics professor from the United States, was invited to Japan to be the consultant of the Ministry of Education.

According to the Kojien Dictionary (as cited in Imura, 2003), many other westerners were invited in Japan in the beginning of the Meiji Era to teach about their advanced knowledge such as technology, science, architecture, and medicine. The total number of the invited westerners was almost 3,000 in total in the Meiji Era. Imura (2003) suggests that in the education field, for example, approximately one third of the budget of Tokyo University when it was founded was spent on the salaries for western lecturers. After eight years in 1881, six foreign language lessons per week were taught in junior high schools.

However, in the second stage of the Meiji Era, the stance towards English gradually changed and a 'backlash' towards English education arose. Two years later, in 1883, Japanese became the teaching language in Tokyo University because, according to Imura (2003), around this time, many of the students sent by the government to western countries came back to Japan to teach in the university. He also stresses that the academic books written in European languages were translated into Japanese, so it was no longer necessary to teach the subjects in English (Imura, 2003). Imura (2003) also suggests that this then led to a sense among Japanese that English was no longer the required means to gain access to western culture and knowledge. Consequently, the status of English changed to that of a normal school subject, Japanese replacing it as the access to knowledge of the outside world.

Moreover, the Japanese Imperial Constitution which took its model from the Prussia Constitution (current Germany), was established in 1889 to show the outside world that Japan was catching up with the West since it had its own constitution. Then they renegotiated a revision of the unilateral treaty with western countries and succeeded in repealing the extraterritoriality of foreign forces in Japan in 1894 just before the Japan-China War. Still, however, Japan could not achieve the recovery of the right to determine the level of customs duties at that time (Gakken, 1999). In terms of the establishment of the constitution, it ironically also encouraged patriotism within Japan. This nationalistic fervor led to the foreign wars of 1894, with China and with Russia in 1904. The victory in these two wars, especially the Japan-Russia War would be a significant influence upon revising the treaty (1911), whereby the right to determine customs duties on imported goods was finally granted. It was believed that this was achieved due to Japan's advances in technology and its ever-increasing strengthening military presence in the region. After this revision of the treaty, Japan received equal trading rights almost 60 years after it had opened its country to the outside world (Gakken, 1999).

Education from this point stressed a return to learning the value of Japanese and its linguistic origin of Chinese, a movement which was energetically led by the Education Minister, Inoue (Ministry of Education, 2002). This turn-around in the status of English was relatively quick, a result of both the practical consideration of returning Japanese lecturers from abroad wishing to teach Western knowledge through Japanese, and of the perhaps more politically-driven government initiative to regard the Japanese language as the language of instruction for nationalist purposes. This was a combination of educational pragmatism in terms of the transfer of knowledge from the West and perhaps a more sinister political movement which later ultimately led to ultra-patriotism, in essence "occidentalism" (Buruma and Margalit, 2004), an Eastern rejection of western values and knowledge. In brief, the new era was one of greater closeness to the outside world, yet one in which the Japanese sense of identity, both in terms of language and nationality, were uncomfortably trying to assert themselves in the world.

3-2 English Education in the Taisho Era
The main feature of English education in the Taisho Era (1912 to 1925) was the continuation of the backlash towards the English boom of the early Meiji Era. Also, the two streams emerging in English education during the Meiji Era appeared more prominently in this next era. In its first eleven years, more and more publications came on to the market related to examination preparation, for example, Ichikawa (1912) who wrote a book about English grammar and Yamazaki (1912) who published a book called "Official Applied Analysis of English sentences". This trend continued with publications by Hosoe (1917) who also wrote a book about English grammar and Ono (1921) who published a book entitled "Interpretation of English sentences - an Analysis and how to translate into Japanese".

Looking at the social, political and economic events in the Taisho Era, the First World War started in 1914 in Europe. Although it was war time in Europe, the Japanese government invited Palmer from the U.K. as consultant to the Ministry of Education. The following year, he established the English Teaching Research Institute. According to Imura (2003), Palmer made great efforts to spread the Oral Method in Japan for more than ten years. In 1924 the first conference for English Language Teaching was held but whilst there was an increasing awareness about the methodology of teaching English and linguistic analysis, there was, at the same time, a growing movement advocating the abolition of teaching English. Imura (2003) suggests that this anti-English feeling was closely linked with the new immigrant law in the U.S. which forbade Japanese immigration. The law led to widespread political and social antipathy toward the U.S. and, in turn, to calls to abolish English language education in Japan. The following year, in 1925, the first radio broadcasting started in Japan, a huge technological advancement which later was seen as helping education despite anti-English language sentiment.

3-3 English Education in Showa Era
The Showa Era, from 1926 to 1988, can be divided into three stages according to the three core events: (1) The period from 1926 up to the Pacific War time in 1941, (2) the end of the Second World War from 1945 to 1963, and (3) the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 up to the start of the JET scheme in 1987. The possible connections and influences of the social, political and economic events upon events related to English language education will be analyzed for each stage.
The first stage was from 1926, starting with the 'Primary English Programme' on radio just after the first radio broadcasting started in 1925. This appeared to be the peak of the anti-English language period at that time. In 1927, Fujimura, a professor of Japanese literature in Tokyo University wrote a paper entitled "Urgent, abolition of English education" creating a sensation (Imura, 2003). According to Imura (2003), Fujimura criticized the apparent wholesale copying of ideas from western countries and suggested that foreign language education had become a burden for Japanese students. Then four years later, in 1931 the first reduction of English lessons at schools was implemented.

In terms of the wider political events of that time, there was the Manchurian Incident was occurred in the same year (1931), which was the start of aggression upon China by the Japanese military (Gakken, 1999). The Japanese Prime Minister, Tsuyoshi Inukai tried to stop the expansion of the military action but he failed and was assassinated in 1932. Afterwards the military took over the government and Inukai became the last democratically elected prime minister of the government before the Second World War (Click 20 Seiki, 2005). Due to the Manchurian Incident, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933 (Buruma, 2004). Consequently, the Japan-China War broke out in 1937 and in 1940 Japan joined the Axis powers of Germany and Italy.

In terms of English education around that time, in 1936 Palmer went back to the U.K. after working for 14 years in Japan (Imura, 2003) and two years later Fujimura published another article entitled "Abolition of English lessons in Junior High Schools". Eventually, in 1941 Japan attached Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War started. The following year in 1942, all the U.K. and American lecturers in Japanese universities were dismissed.

In brief, this first stage leading up to the Second World War showed the peak of anti-English language education sentiment, resulting in dismissals of foreign academics and the abolition of English language provision in Japanese education. The effective military take-over of government in the mid-1930s led to stricter rules against anti-patriotic expression. Teachers were required to follow the more nationalistic government education policy and English was seen as a negative, foreign influence in society. Nationalistic sentiment was at a high and Japanese identity was re-conceptualized as being unique in character and spirit. This is outlined by Yoshino (1992) as the origin of the "nihonjinron" theory of Japanese uniqueness, broadly summarized by Buruma and Margalit (2004) as representing a Japanese form of "Occidentalism". This led to a rejection of previously imported western culture, knowledge and, significantly, English.

The second stage of the Showa Era began in 1945, the year marking the end of the Second World War and the start of the U.S. occupation. General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan as the head of General Headquarters (GHQ) organized by the U.S. military. It was approximately one hundred years after Commodore Perry arrived in Japan with his black ships (Buruma, 2003). The political, economic and education systems had drastically changed after Commodore Perry came to Japan, as was seen in the Meiji Restoration, but this was internally directed by successive Japanese governments themselves. The difference between Commodore Perry and General MacArthur was that MacArthur himself and GHQ in the form of an external occupying force which supervised the reform of the political, economic and education systems in Japan.