English Educaon and Bilingual Educaon in Japan by Steve McCarty Original source: McCarty, S. (2024). English educaon and bilingual educaon in Japan. Bilingual Japan, 33(1), 9-13. Editor’s Introducon: One of our members (and former president) has had an interview arcle recently published with The Japan Times (Margolis, 2024). The journalist has graciously agreed to share the full interview with Bilingual Japan, which we include here as this issue’s feature arcle. As editor, my opinion is that – and this should be unsurprising to those who are acquainted with Steve McCarty’s work – the responses he gave to the interviewer are carefully considered, grounded in lived experiences in Japan as both a bilingual himself, and as an educator. The subtlety in his answers might easily be overlooked, but they certainly respect the spirit of BSIG [the Japan Associaon for Language Teaching Bilingualism Special Interest Group (JALT Bilingualism SIG)]. For instance, Steve is aware that bilingualism does not mean Japanese- English bilingualism only, and he is acutely aware of the bi-direconality of bilingualism, which careful readers will find is reflected in his responses that touch upon internaonal schools. Japan Times: Despite a rigorous emphasis and many revisions to English educaon in Japan, English levels remain low. What do you see as the primary barriers to English proficiency? Steve McCarty: Educaon is a conservave sector in this insular island naon. Ikuyo Tsuboya-Newell (2017) blames grammar-translaon pedagogy, cultural