It looks like the Japanese government has passed a new law stating that foreigners must be enrolled in Japanese social or national health insurance in order to be able to renew their visas. So for those of you who are planning on going to Japan, you should probably go with the government health insurance plan just in case you do want to renew your visa. But also remember that you can’t enroll into the government health insurance plan until you receive your foreign registration card (a.k.a Alien Registration Card), which can take up to about 2 weeks. So to protect yourself, you should buy about 4 weeks worth of regular travel medical insurance just to be on the safe side. This information regarding the government’s changes came from
ELTnews.com

Declining birth rate poses serious problems for schools
May 06, 2009

A new report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications estimates that the number of Japanese children under 15 is 17.14 million which is a record low. Japan’s population as a whole had its largest ever decline last year. Children under 15 make up 13.4 per cent of the population while those aged 65 or older make up 22.5 per cent.

These figures mean that the percentage of children in Japan is now the lowest among all countries that have a population of over 30 million people. Until this year the percentages in Germany and Italy were lower. By prefecture, Akita has the lowest percentage of children and Tokyo the second lowest. Okinawa has the highest.

It is clear that the continuing decline in the birth rate will put increasing pressure on schools of all kinds to close or merge and is also likely to have a negative effect on the working conditions and job security of teachers. Many English schools have been spared the full impact of the declining population because of the increasing awareness of the need for English, but whether this will continue or not is an open question.

(This article was taken from

ELTnews.com

Recently, a friend of mine attended the TESOL Conference in Denver, Colorado. She told me how globalization was an important issue and that it was changing the face of TESOL. She mentioned that people were talking about getting away from the “native English teacher” mold, and instead of teaching English as a second or foreign language, it should be teaching English as an international language. Since there are far more non-native English speakers, the teaching of English should step away the native English teacher mold, both culturally and linguistically.

TESOL Convention 2009

Currently, the client companies that NewPath works with require “native English speaking teachers.” For Japan and South Korea, it seems that there is still a ways to go before non-native English teachers are accepted equally. There have been some signs that things are changing, however. I have noticed that public schools have begun to hire English teachers from countries such as the Philippines and India. I think that as globalization and the demand for English education continues to grow, learning English will have a stronger emphasis on effective communication and not so much on being able to speak with a native accent. What do you think?