Why do Japanese think they don't need English?

Question:

I've chatted to one Japanese and he said they are not good in English because most of the Japanese think they will never have to use it. So English seems unnecessary for them. At the same time they are "studying English real hard". However with the believe that they will NEVER need it, so why is it popular to study English in Japan then?

Answer:

We study English because it is needed to study at school.
Japanese have realized its importance, but at the same time we believe it's rare to speak, write in English in Japan.
I think it's partly because that Japan has a great number of information sources that provide us a vast range of information in Japanese so we don't quite feel that we need to study English for the purpose to get knowledge written in English as opposed to other people living in rather small countries that have only small information sources.