Acknowledgements
This book has been very much a labor of love. It has been a project shared with colleagues and friends with the sense of a real hope of improving the working environment in Japan for students above all, but also for teachers and colleagues. The criticism of some aspects of Japanese education is in no form ‘Japan bashing’ but stems from a deep fondness and concern for this marvelous country and its young people.
Joff Bradley: On a personal note, I would like to thank Charles Cabell for his help in the project, and always for his stylistic verve and inspirational rhetoric. To my fellow co-editor, David Kennedy, I thank a great deal as he has held firm in his naturally calm way and has moved the project slowly but surely onwards even when we have been confronted with numerous everyday concerns. To the contributions who you have abided with the book and its long journey to publication, I thank you most humbly. Although I hope that the outcome of our collective endeavors will make some positive change in education in Japan, the faults of the project are entirely my own responsibility.
David Kennedy: I would like to put in a word of gratitude to all the students who over the years have taught me more about the practice of education than anyone. Cohorts come and go, and yet (I feel confident in concluding) the wisdom accumulated through our interactions travels with us and spreads to others. And thus we have this book! A very special thanks to Joff Bradley and Charles Cabell, my former colleagues in the Department of English Communication at Toyo University. It was through spirited and good-humored discourse together that the pedagogical vision of the New Tokyo Group and for this book came into view. And, last but not least, I wish to thank all the contributors who believed in this project and worked so hard to make it a reality. May our journey continue together!