In December of the following year, the president of the Korean Novelists Association suggested at a Novelists Forum that Koreans should learn from the bilingual policy in Singapore.
The issue caught Japanese people’s attention in January 2000, when the proposal to make English an official language was included in The New Millennium, a report published by an advisory panel to then Prime Minister Obuchi. The report reads:
It is necessary to set the concrete objective of all citizens acquiring a working knowledge of English by the time they take their place in society as adults. In addition, the central government, local governments, and other public as adults. In addition, the central government, local governments, and other public institutions must be required to produce their publications home pages, and so on in both Japanese and English. In the long term, national debate on whether to make English a second official language will be needed.