<< Yes, I think literacy is more important than in the past. Nowadays, computer technologies changed our lives and we have more chance to send Emails and read on a screen. Computers give us more chance to read and write, though it is not the same way in the past. As for Japanese, I guess our ability to read and write is getting down recently. I guess Japanese language itself will disappear in the future. Ability to read and write would be important especially in English. Email becomes popular among ordinaly people around the world. That gives us more chance to communicate with friends by typing on a screen. So read and write ability is important especially on a screen, not on a paper. Maybe in the near future, our chance to write with a pen will decrease. Instead, we type a keyboard and write on a screen. That is beneficial for our nature, our forests. But as for Japanese, our literacy level is clearly down these days. This is because the specific characteristics of Japanese language itself. Have you heard of KANJI words? KANJI words originate from China, and now, with a little change, become main Japanese character. We train to read and write Kanji scince primary school until high school. In these 12 years, most of us become a master of KANJI. Especially, when using KANJI, it is more important to write with a hand on a paper. When we use KANJI on a screen, we only choose it among several similar KANJIs. Without writing on a paper, we easily forget which KANJI we should use according to an appropriate situation. In fact, my ability to read and write KANJI is getting down in these 2 or 3 years. I can't prevent that against the prevail of computers. On top of that, the more I study medicine, my major, the more I have to study in English. In this way, our ability to read and write Japanese is getting down apparently. I guess Japanese language itself will dissappear in the near future. Our government also hope that English becomes Japanese's public language. So they strengthen the education of English in primary school, junior high school, and high school. Fortunately most Japanese think English as somewhat sophisticated. We welcome American and European cultures. On the other hand, especially young people think Japanese culture as something out of date, and prefer using English-like things. So I guess in the future, even for Japanese, the ability to read and write in English will become more important than in the past.