Japanese universities have lately begun to teach academic content in English instead of Japanese.In this article, I examine curricular and ideological issues related to having English as a medium of instruction (EMI) at a Japanese university before examining their links to larger cultural-political forces in Japan, including neoconservative agendas.My discussion is framed within the setting of a Japanese higher education facing the challenges of: (1) low enrolments and institutional solvency; (2) curricular reform in keeping with the need for institutional renewal.Specifically, based on a critical narrative inquiry into a workplace encounter involving two university courses, one in introductory psychology and another in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), I will explore the ideologically-embedded nature of discourses affecting professional understandings of language, meaning making and curriculum.I will also observe that the 'changes' resulting from the adoption of EMI are only superficial and that the role and status of English, in reality, remains circumscribed.