That looks like such a great resource! Can't think of anything to say but thanks for pointing it out.

Blame it on shinto for these marks.

You can also flip the rankings to "world," and then Japan barely escapes being in the Worst Ten for TOEFL scores.

oh fun! According to this Brazil is still world champion in soccer (data is from 2002...)
for more fun, in less consumer-oriented way (so maybe less fun after all): http://sciencelinks.jp/
(sorry..i just dont know how to enter a hyperlink here..)

although Japan may be lagging in % daily smokers, according to last year's Economist stat book, they still consume more cigarettes per capita than any other nation listed.

I may not be reading this right, but why are the UK and Australia taking the TOEFL? I thought you took the test to show your proficiency in English, something native English speakers shouldn't need?

strange indeed. Maybe to enter a US-American university? Queens English and IELTS (the British TOEFL) arent the standard there maybe? Just a wild guess here...

Intriguing to actually see concrete information concerning Japan's misguided interest in the English language.

I think that measures people taking the TOEFL *inside* the country, not actual citizens of each country taking the test. Any non-citizen non-native speaker of English who can't get into a US college, for example, the old-fashioned way is likely to take the TOEFL regardless of where they reside. Also, current students may want to re-take it so they can transfer from a low-level state college to something more prestigious.

Here's the odd contradiction in our understanding of the Japanese learning English:

1. The Japanese learn English, but they are only good at standardized tests, not actually usage.
2. The Japanese are the world's worst TOEFL takers (out of the countries with real education systems).

Does this mean:

1. The TOEFL is dramatically different from Japanese standardized test materials.

and even

2. The Japanese do not actually learn English as much as a domestic-only diagnostic code based on the English language.

Yes and yes. "Domestic-only diagnostic code based on the English language" is an excellent way of putting it! It seems like there's been a progressive ratcheting-down of standards to give everyone a chance of passing if they just memorize enough. If Japan suddenly started teaching English the way the rest of the world teaches foreign languages they'd find that most people would become bored and give up, while those who remained would excel. The way it is now, everyone can achieve the same useless results.

If you look at the TOEFL you'll see that it is a pretty comprehensive test of general language ability with a focus on university life - the kind rarely seen in Japan.

I'm sure that more than a few of us have noticed this phenomenon on an anecdotal level. The Japanese college students that I have tutored in the TOEFL were both terrible though they had done reasonably well on Japanese-made English tests.

Sadly, this is another one of those "easy" issues that everyone understands and agrees on but about which nothing will be done.

marxy, I actually think #2 is the likely reason for the results of the TOEFL. (I also say this because it seems that Koreans have the same dilemma re: English.)

That and when I was in Japan, I would just random say things in English as I envisoned a Korean person would say in English with some of the few Japanese words I knew, and people more or less understood me.

Well OK, there are some changes taking place - most entrance exams have added a listening portion to their English tests, but that just puts them in the league of the JLPT, which as we all know isn't exactly the best indicator of Japanese ability.

actually the number of takers in japan is responsible in large part for the bad numbers. English is held at arms length by most people, and treated first and foremost as a hobby. I've known lots of people who take the test without the least prospect of getting a good score, just to measure themselves.
Lowered expectations here also factor, I'm sure. When grad schools in Japan demand a certain level of english competency, that level is much lower than in germany for example... so there would likely be a huge number of people who take the test with a comparitively mediocre score as their goal.
everyone sucks at english. even the teachers at public schools often don't meet the high school graduation standards of academic schools.

This doesn't really apply directly to TOEFL, but when I was in Japan (as a high school exchange student) my classmates took the 英検　every time it was offered, even if they had no chance in hell of passing the next level. "Oh, just barely pass 2級 just a few months ago? You get to fail horribly at　準１級 this time!" I guess practicing taking the test helps, but it's got to drag down the averages.

I'll be taking a professional certification exam soon. One of my japanese co-workers asked about it, and when he heard the test was 6hrs long with 250 questions, he said he was jealous and wished he could take it too. Not that he's in any way related to this particular profession and couldnt even understand the basic terms in Japanese, he just wanted to take a big test.

Don't the Japanese value TOEIC more than TOEFL? TOEFL is mainly used for applications to universities, and I'm under the impression that not so many Japanese actually study abroad to earn a degree, at least not compared with us pan-Chinese. There's a reason why we can survive everywhere in the world... ;-)

I wholly agree however that TOEFL is dramatically different from Japanese (or generally speaking East Asian) standardized test materials. As someone who's taken both TOEFL and JLPT, I can personally attest that the former is far more indicative of one's actual language ability. JLPT is plain archaic... When will it ever change? Although I have to say ET$ is one greedy bastard.

That being said, you can score moderately high at TOEFL without being actually good at English. There's a huge business of TOEFL/TOEIC/whatever crank schools over here in Taiwan. I'd even say the Chinese are just as good, if not better, than the Japanese when it comes to standarized tests. After all, we invented the concept. ;-)

Not that I'm particularly proud of this fact or have bothered to really prepare for TOEFL aside from getting familiar with the test format, though.

TOEIC was invented by a Japanese company, and it is even worse than the JLPT. As far as I know it's more for businessmen than for college students. It's such a BS test that I would go so far as to make the completely unsubstantiated claim that it exists solely to profit off a misguided concept of English learning. I spent a year teaching to the TOEIC for Japanese businessmen and bureaucrats, and believe me, nothing spells "diagnostic code" like the TOEIC.

That GDP-by-Purchasing-Power-Parity table is fascinating. Turkey, Poland, and Mexico all outrank Sweden? Who knew!

Another interesting thing is the absence of China from the ranking charts, like that GDP by PPP table for example. China would be #2 at something like 9,000 (i.e. nearly 3 times japan).

Yeah, the lacuna created by China's absence is quite notable. Market reforms or no, I guess it's still a "2nd-world" country, and hence off the radar.

Certainly, if China were present, it would top the gender-ratio ranking. As it is, the only countries listed with more than 100 men per 100 women are Turkey and S. Korea. And of course, a high gender ratio = lots of guys have to settle for ugly chix. Conversely, a low gender ratio = dork's paradise (which explains a lot of the couples you see in Prague).

China is not an OECD country, hence its absence from the OECD ranking.

As for gender ratio; apparently the arab states have the most men per woman, by a rather wide margin. Immigrant labor, i guess.

Since China instituted its one-child policy, the ratio of male to female births has skyrocketed to something like 120 to 100. Pretty scary, when you consider the vast army of guys with no hope of fulfilling their genetic missions.

As for the high male-to-female ratios in Arabic countries, that combined with islamic-sanctioned polygamy of up to four wives for one guy no doubt results in a lot of guys who ain't gettin' any. Sexual frustration = jihadin' energy. As Eddie Murphy says in 48 Hours, "Lack of pussy make a man BRAVE!"