Yeah, amazon.co.jp does not provide an unbiased sample of Japanese consumers. It's very otaku-oriented. Otaku-ish anime games/video/figurines are often the best selling stuff there. But if you look beyond that, you can still find some general trends that permeate the society (i.e. the popularity of DS games, etc). It's not entirely useless.
As for English education; it sucks to hear that it hasn't improved over the years. Back when I was in school, they taught us materials that had little relevance to the practical use of English. Since then, I sort of hoped that it would improve over time, but I guess it didn't. Probably it's a cultural thing - Jpn people are so afraid of making grammatical mistakes and easily get embarrassed so they think they might as well not speak at all. Maybe due to their inferiority complex toward Western culture. I don't know. I don't see a quick fix coming anytime soon.
No, it's not going to stop 'Til you wise up
No, it's not going to stop So just ... give up
- Aimee Mann
