Shin-Eiken, New English Teachers' Association, is a nation-wide foreign language teachers' organization in Japan, with a branch in every prefecture and a membership of about 1,000. Many local meetings are held regularly as well as an annual national conference.

Shin-Eiken was founded in 1959, inspired by the ideals of the Constitution of Japan: peace, democracy, freedom, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. The aims of Shin-Eiken are to clarify the purposes of teaching foreign languages and to create and develop a new English education that is rooted in democracy. Shin-Eiken teachers would like to see every student achieve a certain degree of proficiency in English to become global-minded citizens. We believe that international understanding or global awareness leads to world peace.
Shin-Eiken teachers want to help students integrate English learning into their actual lives so that they can communicate with people to make a better world.

As Shin-Eiken members, we have taken into account the real difficulties and needs of students and created suitable teaching materials and methods through our own studies, teaching experiences, and discussions focused on both local and global perspectives. Many of the materials have been developed and published by our member teachers. Among them are high school textbooks approved by Monbusho, the Ministry of Education, and many supplementary readers such as Okinawa, Beyond the Silent Spring, The Story of Chiune Sugihara, Love Adventure to Laputa, and The World Heritage.

Student-centered teaching methodologies have also been developed. 'Self-expression in English' and 'group learning or cooperative learning methods' have been widely used by our member teachers and have proven to be effective in encouraging students to participate actively in class.

A monthly educational magazine for English and other language teachers, Shin Eigo Kyoiku, or New English Classroom, is edited by teachers and published by San-yu-sha Publishing Company. It has a wide circulation all over Japan.

The association is also affiliated with Nihon Minkyoren, Japan Non-Governmental Educational Studies Organization. All Shin-Eiken members would like to cooperate with other teachers and researchers throughout the world who want to dedicate themselves to establishing a peaceful and democratic world.