Japan Finance Watchdog to Use More English to Draw Foreign Firms

Japan’s financial regulator wants its officials to brush up on their English language skills as part of efforts to burnish Tokyo’s image as a global financial center.

The Financial Services Agency will introduce training courses to improve employees’ “practical” English reading and writing skills, it said Monday in its annual policy plan. The language barrier is one of the biggest obstacles to attracting financial firms to the country, a senior FSA official told Bloomberg, asking not to be identified in accordance with its policy.

Japanese lawmakers and authorities are renewing effortsto boost the status of Tokyo as an international ...