I guess by way of defense -

The Ritz Carlton in Osaka had quite a few restaurants. Some of the restaurants were Japanese. And a subpart of that section of restaurants was a traditional tempura restaurant (and - like I said - that restaurant had only about 10 seats). The chef was a highly authentic Japanese tempura chef - chosen no doubt for his proficiency in tempura as opposed to his proficiency in English. And that worked for me. I suspect that if one were to go to the more "western/non-Japanese" restaurants in the Ritz Carlton (French, Chinese, etc.) - or even the Japanese "steakhouse" restaurant - that one would find more English spoken. I know that perfect English was spoken at breakfast (the person who seated us and took our orders was Italian!).

Also - I am curious about when people say they have encountered good English in hotels - where have they encountered it? Even in the FS Marunouchi - a lot of staff we encountered at places like the bar didn't speak great English (although the concierge and restaurant staffs certainly did). Didn't surprise me - because about 95% of the bar business I saw was Japanese businessmen conducting "after-work" business over cocktails and bar food.

So perhaps it is an issue of whether certain hotel staff are more or less likely to encounter people who speak English. And - if they do meet people who speak English - how critical is it that they speak English (it is certainly more important for a concierge or reception person than a tempura chef or bartender)? On my part - the lack of English on the part of the tempura chef wasn't an issue. He actually hand wrote everything we ate in kanji on a "menu" after we finished dinner. It's a cherished souvenir. Wasn't an issue with the bartender either (we managed to "talk" without either of us speaking the same language).

And with regard to written versus spoken English - I exchanged email with all 3 hotels we stayed at before we arrived (mostly concierge desks to make restaurant reservations and other plans). No problems at all. The written English - while not perfect - was 100% ok in the sense that everything I requested was done before I arrived.

P.S. to Mosburger - I think we did have some Korean food in Osaka. Although - looking at the pictures - it seems more like a mix of Chinese and Korean. Can't tell - I don't know much about Korean food except that if there's a side of kimchi - there is probably something Korean about the meal . Robyn