Introduction Technology has improved a great deal recently in Japan and is becoming more widespread. Videotape recorders and personal computers are not rare for daily use. Language laboratories have also greatly improved and are rapidly becoming more complex and expensive. Each student commonly has a tape recorder as well as headphones and a microphone in his booth. There is also visual equipment such as videotape recorders, overhead projectors, opaque projectors, and slide and movie projectors. Videotapes are being replaced by videodisks, and videodisk players interfaced with a computer to allow branching will be on the market soon. Computers are also used for administration and evaluation. Language laboratories are well developed and Japanese language laboratory equipment is highly established internationally. However, its effectiveness has been questioned by American delegates who observed...