为开拓海外市场，弥补日益减少的国内消费，日本一些知名零售企业要求员工开始说英语——否则就会饭碗不保。

　　As Japan's population shrinks, the country's retailers are increasingly looking to boost sales by expanding abroad and some firms are waking up to the necessity of being able to speak the global language of business in order to succeed overseas.

　　随着日本人口的减少，该国越来越多的零售企业开始向海外拓展市场以促进产品销售，一些公司开始意识到要成功拓展海外市场，必须会说英语这一国际商务语言。

　　Rakuten, Japan's biggest online retailer, plans to make English the firm's official language, while Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo apparel chain, wants to make English more common in its offices by 2012 and plans to test its employees for proficiency.

　　日本最大的网上零售公司乐天国际打算将英语定为公司的官方语言，而优衣库服装连锁公司隶属的迅销集团则希望在2012年前在全公司普及英语，并计划对员工的英语水平进行测试。

　　"It's about stopping being a Japanese company. We will become a world company," Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said last week at a news conference in Tokyo -- conducted almost entirely in English.

　　乐天国际首席执行官三木谷浩史在上周在东京召开的一次新闻发布会上说：“我们不再只是一家日本公司，我们将成为一家世界级的公司。”新闻发布会全程基本用英语进行。

　　Employees at Rakuten, which hopes overseas sales will eventually account for 70 percent of all transactions made through its websites, will need to master English by 2012 to avoid facing the sack.

　　这意味着乐天国际的员工在2012年之前必须熟练掌握英语，否则将被解雇。乐天希望其海外销售额最终能占到其所有网上交易额的70%。

　　"No English, no job," Mikitani told the Asahi newspaper.

　　三木谷说：“不会说英语，就没工作。”

　　Other high-profile Japanese companies, including automakers Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor, have announced moves to make the use of English more common in the workplace.

　　三木谷告诉《朝日新闻》说：“不会说英语，就没工作。”

　　Some experts say the switch to English is healthy but just one of the changes companies need to make to go global.

　　一些专家称，将英语定为工作语言有益于企业的长远发展，但这只是企业走向国际化所需做出的改变之一。

　　"What's interesting is that these companies really stand out as pioneers," Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University's Japan campus.

　　天普大学日本校区亚洲研究部主任杰夫 金士顿说：“有意思的是，这些公司率先做出改变，的确引人注目。”

　　"They have a relatively new outlook. They realize that Japan is going to need to strike into foreign markets given the dormantstate of its economy," he said.

　　他说：“这些企业的发展观相对较新。他们意识到在如今这种低迷的经济状态下日本需要进军外国市场。”