How many Japanese know english?

Question:

I have heard that they learn english in school and that many english teachers only speak english in class. However I have not known Japanese to speak english. So how many Japanese can speak english? Also is english class mandatory or like an elective?

Answer:

There's a difference between knowing a language, studying a language and actually speaking a language.

I know many people who might understand/know parts of a language, but can hardly speak it.

Japanese people learn English by the book, they don't actually take classes on how to speak it. You learn it, you take the test, but if you never use it in real life you forget.

If I were to take another subject for example. We all learn things like Chemistry and the periodic table in school, most people in most developed countries like the USA Right? Well we learn, we take the test, we pass then we never hardly use it (unless we become scientists) we forget.

There's no data that can tell you how many people actually speak English. How would you gauge this data? Speaking a little, a lot, etc. It's like when people say, more people in China know English then Americans.

There Japanese who might better at reading and comprehending various parts of the English language because they studied it academically, however speaking it is another ball park.

I totally understand the feeling. I remember studying French way back in school. I can understand a heck of a lot and read as well, but when it comes to actually speaking French, I butcher it and is not representative of my knowledge of actual French.