shortage of qualified teachers, a lack of appropriate instructional materials and, above all, the absence of a sociolinguistic environment in which English is meaningful. Socio-economic conditions influence both the range of possibilities of learning English (i.e. paying for a private English course, moving to an English-speaking country for a period to improve the level of English) and the effective access to an EMI course, considering that some universities charge higher fees for courses taught in English. Westernization is another issue. Robert Phillipson, who has written extensively on the topic of linguistic imperialism, is very critical of EMI, as he sees it as another form of linguistic imperialism perpetuating the stereotype that having a Western-style education is superior and something that is necessary for a successful future The use of English as a medium of instruction in non-speaking English countries may lead local languages to be inadequate in the future as a medium of higher education. One risk is they will not develop the necessary registers to express specific academic knowledge. Another controversial issue is whether introducing EMI courses could in a certain way downgrade the courses taught in the local language. EMI courses might be considered elitist and may lead to discrimination even among students of the same university. Coming to the teaching side, lecturers may not be able to perform as well as if they were performing in their native language. Not sufficient proficiency in English of lecturers leads to a simplification of contents and materials and, in general, to a reduced quality of instruction. In Japan Scholars such as Ryuko Kubota have explored the subject of English in the Japanese education system. Major criticisms addressed the way textbooks for English language teaching are designed. These tend to depict English-speaking societies (mostly associated with the United States and the UK) as problem free, and this leads to notions of idealised societies where Japanese students may think there are no injustices, discrimination or social disharmony. According to Jacquelin Wildin these texts also assume that the West has ownership of critical thinking and that non-western countries are underdeveloped in their logic, critical and analytical skills. As underlined by the studies of Takehiko Nakata, this reinforces Japanese views of inferiority of non-westerners. Other critics have argued that the dominance of English influences the Japanese language and people's views of language, culture, race, ethnicity and identity which are affected by the worldview of