SOMEYA Yasumasa Aoyama Gakuin Universitysomeya@cl.aoyama.ac.jp

(c) 2005Someya Yasumasa

Presented at the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference of the Association for Business Communication, Chuo University, May 28-29, 2005.

Survey Period: July – October 2004

The State of Written Business Communication in Englishin the Japanese Workplace: A Questionnaire Survey Update

2

1.  Purpose of the Survey

This survey is a follow-up of the previous survey conducted in 1998*, and its purpose is to collect basic data as to the current state of written business communication in English in the Japanese workplace, and

thereby compare the results with those of 1998 to see if there are any significant development or changes in the past six years.

---------------------

* Someya, Y (1999). "The State of Written Business Communication in the Japanese Workplace: A Questionnaire Survey." A paper presented at the 64th Convention of the Association for Business Communication, Los Angeles, November 5, 1999. 

染谷泰正 (1999) 「ビジネス英語のニーズと実態に関するアンケート調査」 『ビジネス英語習得術』 (pp. 116-121) アルク

3

2.  Survey Period ad Data Collection

The survey was conducted between July and October 2004 on the same sampling population as that of the 1998 survey, using the same questionnaire* as that used in the previous survey.

A total of 300+ questionnaire forms were either sent by surface mail or directly distributed to the sampling population, and a final tally of 73 valid responses were obtained.

---------------------

* See Page 5 for details of the questionnaire

4

3.  Respondents (Sampling Population)

a)  Participants of a business writing correspondence course offered by a Tokyo-based publisher. *

b)  Participants of three one-day seminars on business writing conducted during the survey period by two Tokyo-based business consultants.

Total number of questionnaire distributed: 300+

Total number of valid responses (a+b): 73

Percentage of valid responses: 24.3%

--------------------- * Due to inappropriate handling of the questionnaire, only 23 valid responses were obtained from this group.

5

4.  Survey Questions (See Questionnaire Form)

Q1   Profile of the Respondents a) Age, b) Yrs of Service, c) Types of Business, d) Size of Business

Q2   Is English necessary at your workplace? (How do you assess the need of English at your workplace?)

Q3 Among the following five areas of English skills, choose three most important areas for you and indicate their relative priority.Q4   How do you define the type of English you use at your workplace?Q5   What are the estimated proportions of the recipients of your business messages being native (NS) and/or non-native (NNS) speakers of English? Q6   Choose three most frequently used means of sending business messages overseas from below, and indicate their relative priority.

Cont’d...

6

4.  Survey Questions (2/2)

Q7 Do you write English business messages all by yourself?

Q8 How often do you write business messages in English?

Q9 What are the approx. proportions of "in-house" and “out- going" documents written in English at your workplace?

Q10 Does you company has an official manual for business writing?

Q11 Have you ever received any formal training in business writing?

Q12 Do you find any noticeable changes in the business docu- ments you write or receive due to increased use of fax and e-mail? If yes, what are they?

Q13 Mention three major problems you have in writing business messages in English.---------------------

* All the questions were given in Japanese in the original questionnaire.

7

Q1 Profile of the Respondents *

1-1)　 Gender 1-2)　 Age

1-3)　 Years of Service 1-4)　 Type of Business

1-5)　 Size of Business

---------------------

* See Handout (pp.4-5) for comparison of the data with those from the 1998 survey.

Q1-1 Male/Female Proportion (N=73)

45.21%

10.96%

43.84% (N=33)

(N=32)6

)

(N=8)Male

Female

NA

Q1-2 Age Distribution (N=73)

(N=0)

(N=30)(N=27)

(N=8)

(N=4) (N=4)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Under

20

20-29 30-39 40-49 50+ NA

%

Q1-3 Years of Service (N=73)

(N=3)(N=2)(N=2)

(N=15)

(N=21)

(N=30)

0

510

15

2025

30

3540

45

Less

tha

n 5

6-1

0

11-

20

21-

30

30+

NA

%

Q1-4 Types of Business (N=73)

(N=9)

(N=3)(N=4)

(N=22)

(N=35)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Man

ufac

turin

g

Ser

vice

Res

earc

h &

Ed. Oth

ers

NA

%

Q1-5 Size of Business (N=73)

(N=1)

(N=10)(N=11)

(N=16)(N=18)(N=17)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

5000

+

1000

+

300+

100+

> 1

00

NA

%

(Total Number of Employees)

2004

8

Q2  Is English necessary at your workplace?

Asked about the need for English at their workplace, an overwhelming majority of the respondents (82%) replied that English is absolutely necessary. (No one replied that English is NOT necessary.)This result confirms our initial assumption that English has now become

one of the basic prerequisites for most business people today.

Q2 Is English Necessary at your Workplace?

(N=73)

Not at all

0%

Occasionally

(17.81%)

Absolutely

(82.19%)

Data from the1998 Survey

2004

9

Q3 Three most important English skills at the workplace

Q3 Relative Priority of English Skills at the Workplace (N=198 (66×3))

17

23

20

3

2

32

16

7

8

2

14

10

16

16

10

Writing skills

Reading skills

Oral com. skills

Translation skills

Presentation skills

Others

Priority 1

Priority 2

Priority 3

63 (31.8%)

49 (24.8%)

43 (21.7%)

27 (13.4%)

2 (1.0%)

14 (7.1%)

Data from the1998 Survey

1st Priority = Reading (40%),

Writing (31%), Oral Com. (28%)Total Point = Writing (102=32%), Oral Com. (80=24.9%), Reading (79=24.6%)

“Reading” was mentioned by 23 votes out of 198 as the most important skill, followed by “Oral Com.” (N=20) and “Writing” (N=17) in this order. In terms of TOTAL points, however, it is clear that most respondents consider “writing” a very, if not the most, important area in their job, although there is no indication that it has become more important than it was six years ago.

2004

10

Q4 How do you define the type of English you use at your workplace?

Louhiala-Salminen (1996) reports that 27% of Finnish business people surveyed think that their English is British, followed by American (24%), ”Euro-English” (44%), and Others (5%).This result is interpreted as to represent the trend that “the professional English used in business is increasingly seen as a combination of different elements, and even as a language of its own right.” What about in Japan?

Q4 Types of English used at the Workplace(N=91*)

British

English

(6.6%)

American

English

(36.3%)

"J apanese"

English

(51.6%)

Others

(5.5%)

(* include multiple answers)

Data from the1998 Survey American English = 50% Japanese English = 32% British English = 12% Others =4.5%. 2004

11

Q5 NS-NNS proportions of the recipients of business messages

According to Louhiala-Salminen (1996), 62% of all the international business communication in Finland was made between Finnish business people and their foreign counterparts whose first language is other than English.

In Japan...

20041998

12

Q6 Most frequently used means of sending msges overseas

Louhiala-Salminen (1996) reports that, in Finland, about 54% of international business messages were sent by Fax, followed by Normal Mail (27%), E-mail (9%), Telex (2%), and Courier service (2%). *The use of fax (and e-mail*) as the major means of communication has its own con- sequences, and one of them is that the language of business msges is becoming “less formal, more to the point, and more speech-like (than it used to be).” (p.50) In Japan...

---------------------* This survey was conducted in 1992, and the author estimates that, as of 1996, “about 50% of the employees in large and medium-sized companies have access to e-mail, and about a third use it actively.” (p.46)

Q6 Means of Sending Business Messages

(N = 137)

(N=7

4)

(N=4

8)

(N=7

)

(N=2

)

(N=3

)

(N=3

7)

(N=2

7)

(N=1

5)

(N=1

7)

(N=1

)

(N=1

)

(N=7

)

(N=1

3)

(N=3

4)

(N=2

6)

(N=1

)

(N=2

)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Fax E-Mail Air Mail I.C.S. Telex Others

%

First Choice (%)

Second Choice (%)

Third Choice (%)

1998 2004

Q6 Means of Sending Business Messages

(N = 73)

(N=60)

(N=5)

(N=2)

(N=4)

(N=0)

(N=2

)

(N=4)

(N=43)

(N=10)

(N=4)

(N=0)

(N=1)

(N=2) (N

=10)

(N=29)

(N=15)

(N=1)

(N=3)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

E-Mail Fax I.C.S.* Air Mail Telex Others

%

First Choice (%)

Second Choice (%)

Third Choice (%)

13

Q7 Do you write English business messages all by yourself? *

In 1998, about 41% of the respondents said that “all” of the English business messages they sent were written by themselves. In 2004, the figure increased by 20% to 61%, and over 93% said that “all” or “most” of the English business messages were written by themselves.This increase is largely accounted for by the increased use of e-mail.

Q7 Do You Write English Business Messages

all by Yourself? (N=118)

No (11%)

Mostly

(48%)

Yes (41%)

→ Percentage of messages proofread by NSE = 22%

Q7 Do You Write English Business Messages

all by Yourself? (* N=75)

Yes

(61.33%)

Mostly

(32%)

No (6.67%)

→ Percentage of messages proofread by NS = 22.67%

(* include multiple answers.)

---------------------* This question may sound a bit odd, but in Japan where English is a foreign language, it is not unusual (and has often been the case until very recently) that someone else write business messages in English for you.

1998 2004

14

Q8 How often do you write business messages in English?

Louhiala-Salminen (1996) reports that, in Finland, about 50% of the respondents replied they write business messages in English on a “Daily” basis, and 25% “Weekly or more.”In Japan...

Q8 How Often Do you Write Business Messages in

English? (N=137)

Weekly

(32%)

Monthly

(26%)

Seldom

(13%)Daily

(29%)

Q8 How Often Do you Write Business Messages in

English? (N=70)

Weekly

(28.57%)

Monthly

(22.86%)

Seldom

(10%) Daily

(38.57%)

1998 2004

15

Q9 Approx. proportions of "in-house" and "outgoing" documents written in English

In the past, it was assumed, and was largely true, that business messages written in English were sent overseas or otherwise written as “outgoing” documents (and perhaps with NS recipients in mind) In today’s business environment, however, this is no longer a valid assumption and many English documents are now written as “in-house” documents.Here’s the data:

Q9 Proportions of "In-house" and "Outgoing"Documents (N=135)

In-house

30%

Outgoing

70%

Percentage of those who replied "100% In-house" = 3.7%

20041998

Ｑ9 Proportions of "In-house" and "Outgoing"

Documents (N=71)

Outgoing

(75.14%)

In-house

(24.86%)

Percentage of those w ho replied "100% In-house" = 7.04%

16

Q10 Does you company has an official manual for business writing?

If English is “absolutely” necessary in today’s business environment (Q2), and about 93% of the Japanese business people write all or most of the business msges in English by themselves (Q7), and over 38% write them on a daily basis (Q8), it is quite reasonable to expect Japanese business firms to have some kind of Business Documentation Manual or otherwise provide proper training opportunities for their employees.Unfortunately, this was not and still is not the case, as shown below:

Q10-1 Does Your Company has an Official

Manual for Business Writing? (N=112)

Yes

38%

No

62%

Q10-1 Does Your Company has an OfficalManual for Business Writing? (N=70)

No

(62.86%)

Yes

(37.14%)

No

(62.86%)

Yes

(37.14%)

1998 2004

17

Q11 Have you ever received any formal training in business writing?

The previous question (Q10) revealed that Japanese companies are rather reluctant in providing a systematic, corporate support to their employees with regard to business documentation in English.This unwillingness is also evident in the answers to Q11.Here’s the data:

Q11 Have You Ever Received Any Formal

Training in Business Writing? (N=137)

No

87%

Yes

13%

Q11 Have You Ever Received Any Formal

Training in Business Writing? (N=71)

No

(80.28%)

Yes

(19.72%)

1998 2004

18

Q12 Any noticeable changes in the business documents due to increased use of fax and email? (1/3)

It’s been said that the wide-spead use of fax and e-mail have accompanied many significant changes in both the quality and quantity of business msges, but the exact nature and extent of these changes are not necesarily know as yet (Bauman 1998).

Louhiala-Salminen (1996) asked a question similar to the above in an attemp to answer the hypothesis that “the introduction of telefax and e-mail, and their present extensive use, have changed the language in interpersonal business communication” (p.47).

To this question, 65% answered “Yes,” 23% “No,” and 11% “Don’t know.” Those who answered “Yes,” mentioned the following as the most evident changes:

　　 - Less attention to formalities (N=38)  - More everyday language, trend towards spoken language (N=28)  - Straignt to the point, efficiency (N=14)  - Language more fluent (N=9)  - Poor language (N=7)  - More American English (N=4)  - More Euro-English or other mixtures (N=3)  - Others (N=9)

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Q12 (2/3)

We asked a similar (but slightly modified*) question to our Japanese samples, and obtained the following results:

---------------------* The exact wording of the question is: “Do you find any noticeable changes in the business documents

you write or receive due to increased use of fax and e-mail? If yes, what are they?”

Q12 Do You Find Any Noticeable Changes to

Business Messages due to Fax and E-mail? (N=70)

Yes

(27.14%)

No

(7.14%)Don't know

(65.71%)

Q12 Do You Find Any Noticeable Changes to

Business Messages due to Fax and E-mail? (N=140)

Don't know

61% No

9%

Yes

30%

1998 2004

Those who replied “Yes,” mentioned the following as the most evident changes (go to next slide).

20

Q12 (3/3)

①

②

③

②

②

②

④

⑤

Major changes as perceived by Japanese business people

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Q13 Mention three major problems you have in writing business messages in English (1/3)

Concerning the areas of difficulty our respondents feel in writing business do

cuments in English, "vocabulary" was mentioned in the 1998 survey as the

most problematic area, followed by "grammar" and "pragmatics”*.

16 (N=36)

4 (N=9)

4 (N=9)

8 (N=17)

9 (N=21)

10 (N=23)

15 (N=35)

15 (N=35)

19% (N=42)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

%

Misc.

Format

Organization

Style

Clarity

Politeness

Pragmatics

Grammar

Vocabulary

Q13 Areas of Difficulty as Perceived by the Respondents (N=226*)

* Multiple answ ers.

* A concern for "politeness" was found significantly high and, therefore, it was treated as an independent category although it was initially included in the “pragmatics” section.

1998

22

Q13 (2/3)

The general tendency was found to be the same in the current survey. The three most problematic areas as perceived by our respondents continue to be: 1) vocabulary*, 2) grammar, and 3) pragmatic considerations including “politeness”, as follows:

* The category “expressions” was included in the “vocabulary” section in the 1998 survey, and it covers such comments as “I wish I knew more useful phrases and expressions.” The aggregate percentage of “vocabulary” and “expressions” is about 22% (The “vocabulary” section in 1998 comprises 19%.)

19.25 (N=31)3.11 (N=5)

3.11 (N=5)

5.59 (N=9)

5.59 (N=9)

9.32 (N=15)

14.91 (N=24)

16.77 (N=27)

12.42 (N=20)

9.94% (Ｎ=16)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

%

Misc.

Format

Organization

Style

Clarity

Politeness

Pragmatics

Grammar

Expressions

Vocabulary

Q13 Areas of Difficulty as Perceived by the Respondents (N=161*)

* Multiple answ ers.

Click to see Table of Comments

2004

23

Summary (1/4)

1. (Q2) The needs for English as an essential business tool remain strong, and 82.2% of the respondents feel that English is “absolutely” necessary in their workplace.

2. (Q3) Our respondents believe that the most important English skills at their workplace today are: Writing, Reading, and Oral Communication skills in this order. (This result is possibly skewed due to the particular nature of our respondents.)

3. (Q4) 51.6% of the respondents think that the English they use at their workplace is “Japanese” English, although how they define it is not necessarily clear. Otherwise, the influence of “American” English continues to be strong. (About 36% replied that their English is “American,“ while only 6.6% replied that they use “British” English.)

(cont’d...)

The current survey can be summarized as follows, and all of these findings are more or less in line with those of the 1998 survey: 

24

4. (Q5) About 52% replied that a half or more of their written business communication is directed to non-native speakers of English, and 13.7% replied that NNS comprise 100% of their foreign business counterparts.

5. (Q6) Email has now become the single most important means of international business communication, with 82.2% of the respondents choosing it as the 1st choice. Fax was mentioned as the 2nd choice by 58.9%. (In the 1998 survey, fax was the 1st choice by 54%, and only 35% said that email was their 1st choice.)

6. (Q7) Over 93% of the respondents said that “all” or “most” of the English business messages were written by themselves (rather than someone else writing for them as it was often the case until very recently in many Japanese companies), whereas the figure in the 1998 survey was 89%.

7. (Q8) About 38.6% replied that they write business messages in English on a daily basis, while the figure in the 1998 survey was 29%.

(cont’d...)

Summary (2/4)

25

8. (Q9) The approximate proportion of “in-house” and “outgoing” business documents written in English is 25 to 75 (was 30 to 70 in 1998), while the percentage of those replied that 100% of their English documents are for in-house distribution increased from 3.7% in 1998 to 7% in 2004.

9. (Q10) About 63% of Japanese companies involved in international business do not have an official writing manual for their employees to refer to, regardless of the size of business in terms of the number of employees (STD=3.4) as it was also the case in 1998.

10. (Q11) About 80% of the respondents said they had never received formal training in business writing. The figure was 87% in 1998, but there does not seem to be any significant improvement in terms of training opportunity.

11. (Q12) About 27% of the respondents replied that they find some notice-able changes in business documentation due to increased use of fax and e-mail (The figure was 30% in 1998. The difference, however, is not statistically significan

t.), and...

(cont’d...)

Summary (3/4)

26

12. (Q12) Some of the most significant changes mentioned are: 1) increase in the number of documents they write and receive, 2) increased pressure to respond immediately, 3) increased use of colloquialism, and 4) less emphasis on formality. The same tendency was also observed and reported in the 1998 survey.

13. (Q13) The three most problematic areas in writing business documents in English as perceived by our respondents continue to be: 1) vocabulary, 2) grammar, and 3) pragmatic considerations including a strong concern for “politeness.”*

------------------------ * Some of the major specific “notions” mentioned in these categories are: 1) Vocabulary = word choice, specialized lexis, vocabulary size (Expressions = variety, more useful expressions and set phrases, ideomaticity and foreignness) 2) Grammar = articles, prepositions, modal verbs, tense, conditional 3) Pragmatics = appropriateness, acceptability, modality (in terms of the non-propositional elements of the sentence).

Summary (4/4)

27

Concluding Remarks and Pedagogical Implications

Introduction of a new educational paradigm that is based on the notion of International English, instead of the traditional adherence in the classroom to the so-called Native English as the single normative model to follow.

Shift to a more down-to-earth business English education that is focused primarily on fluency, but in addition to (rather than instead of) the traditio-nal focus on correctness. The new educational goals should specifically include the ability to respond immediately under the pressure of time, as well as the tolerance for linguistic surface “errors” and “non-standard” usage as long as communicability is secured.

All of these findings suggest that the nature of written business communication in Japan has been undergoing significant changes in many important respects due mainly to the rapid advance in communication technology and the accerelated globalization of business. These changes as a whole seem to suggest that our business communication pedagogy should be redefined in the following directions:

28

Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to ALC Publishers, Inc., Sogo Kyoiku Kikaku, Inc., and SMBC Consulting, Co. Ltd. for their cooperation in conducting this survey. I also appreciate all the business people who kindly responded to this survey. My deep apologies go

to the respondents whose responses were not included in the current report due to inappropriate handling of the questionnaire on our side.

References Louhiala-Salminen, Leena. (1996). “The Business Communication Classroom vs Reality: What Should We Teach Today?” English For Specific Purposes. Volume 15, No. 1, pp. 37-51. Pergamon. Bauman, John (1998). “E-Mail in the Business World: Issues for Teachers of ESP,” Proceedings of the 1997 Japan Conference on English for Specific Purposes. University of Aizu, Japan. pp.35-40.

Someya, Yasumasa (1999). "The State of Written Business Communication in the Japanese Workplace: A Questionnaire Survey." A paper presented at the 64th Convention of the Association for Business Communication, Los Angeles, November 5, 1999. 

染谷泰正 (1999) 「ビジネス英語のニーズと実態に関するアンケート調査」『ビジネス英語習得術』 pp. 116-121. アルク

Fuji Zerox (2002). “English Business Documentation Survey.” （ Unpublished in-house survey conducted in March 2003, based on Someya 1999.)

 

29

Thank you. Any questions?

　 The State of Written Business Communication in English in the Japanese Workplace: A Questionnaire Survey Update

Someya Yasumasa 2005

This presentation can be downloaded from: www.cl.aoyama.ac.jp/~someya/