Are the majority of Japanese in Tokyo able to speak in English?

well are most Americans able to speak Japanese?

No. Most of Tokyo people cannot speak English. Many of them can speak "broken english" but not just as English for conversation. If you go to a sight seeing place where foreign travellers visit, you can find a few people speak English fruently. However, in center of Tokyo such as Roppongi, Shinjyuku, Marunouchi etc, many business persons can speak English. In short, some can speak and some cannot. It depends on the place. For your info, Japanese cannot speak English better than many of other Asian countries because of unnecessity. Common language in ASEAN conference is English. But a Japanese prime minister does not speak English so well. But please do not be afraid. Most of the train station has English sign boards and many of restaurants displays a picture of dishes or even imitations so that you can poin out even if you cannot speak English. Also you can find Seven Eleven or equivalent shop everywhere. You can buy anything anytime.

They live in Japan. What do they need to learn English for? That's like me asking you "Why don't you speak Japanese?" when you live in an English-speaking country.

You are right to plan ahead and learn some useful phrases. You may need them. And, its always a good idea to show your interest in the place you are traveling to. You are wrong about national pride- in fact many Japanese people place a high priority on learning English. The problem lies in the education system, which pretty much focuses on grammar and books, in order to get a passing grade. They dont spend much time, if any, speaking English during the lessons, so thats why Japanese are extremely under-confident about speaking. Also, Japan is still a very homogeneous country- so the average Japanese person has very few chances to speak a language other than Japanese. There are many other points and issues I could bring up related to this topic, but basically you should try to use Japanese in Japan and if someone speaks to you in English then thats great too! Just dont walk up and speak English, that puts them on the spot. EDIT: I just read the rest of your question. What other economic advantages do they need? Japan has been doing quite well for itself since the end of the war, in fact it has come a long way, without a bilingual population. Its not a closed economy, the last time I checked! Its 2007.

Most Japanese people, especially younger ones, learn English at school. They do this, however, primarily through writing and listening, so their speaking skills are often poor and lots of people are embarrassed to use them. This isn't to say everyone is - many people I know who live in Japan are amazingly fluent, but the majority of people people will have little/no use for English in their everyday lives and the skills they didn't obtain very well in the first place wither over time. The same happens to everyone who learns a second language. Let me put it this way. If America is so advanced, how come they're mostly monolingual in English? Many Chinese people live there, so how come you can't all speak fluent Mandarin? Being able to speak English, especially in a country where it's 99% Japanese-speaking Japanese people, is not a factor in whether or not a country is advanced. Smacks of Western imperialism to me! Simple Japanese phrases aren't difficult to learn, and even if you can't say them properly, attempting will pretty much always get you some form of help. The people are, on the whole, enormously helpful and giving of their time. If you get completely and utterly stuck, gestures say a lot. Edit - Oh, Twinkie, you're just wanting your imperialist question answered in an imperialist way. Surprisingly, the great majority of people will not encounter exclusively English speaking people on an everyday basis. Shocking, I know! We should throw more of you Yanks in there, that'll teach the people for being concerned with what should concern them. Haha, burrrrned. I have poor English skills, huh? Hell, I should drop out of university right now and go to the English School for People Who Have Different Opinions To Americans.

Most learn some English in school, but many are not fluent. You will probably find more English speakers in shops than on the street. I would suggest learning basic phrases to enable you to get around, shop, get information, etc. One thing that's helpful is that a good deal of signs are in English. I traveled there and spent a few months beforehand learning a bit of the language; it helped immensely. And since the US is such an "advanced" country, why are we all monolingual? Is it because our national pride says that English is the national language? Oh wait, it does.

The majority of Japanese are living and working with Japanese who speak Japanese. There's no need to speak English. Advanced = speak English? I don't think so. But I think it's good to learn other languages. So it's good to learn basic Japanese phrases when you go to Japan.

yEA MOSt OF DEM DO SPEAk ENGLiiSH, ii WENt tO JAPAN BEFORE iit WAz MAD FUN!!!!!!

You seem to be making assumptions here. Actually, most people in Tokyo can speak a little English, as almost everyone studied it at school at some point. Currently, most Japanese kids study English for 6 years in the public school system, then possibly more at university, or on their own through various means. Why is Japan mostly monolingual? Maybe for the same reason China is. If you've got a language and can get by, then so be it. My parents are monolingual. They never had a reason to learn any other language. Sucks to be them though. It sounds like you're more intent on being angry at Japanese for not learning English, than you are on knowing whether or not you can communicate effectively in Japan. And who are you to lecture about economic advantages? Japan is the second largest economy in the world. Not bad for such a small country. For some reason, I think Japan's doing just fine in those regards. Also, again, people in Japan DO speak English, and those who need to use it, need to use it. Do you want to communicate with Japanese, or do you just want to whine about what isn't? Maybe you're just upset because Japanese is too hard for you. As you said, you can speak several languages. Maybe you became sort of used to seeing yourself that way, but Japanese trumped you. I can't wait until the next time I go out and can order the best things from a Japanese menu, while you're complaining at KFC about the chicken in Japan or whatever.