This edited volume explores how language educators and other stakeholders wrestle with notions of being, becoming and belonging in and beyond educational spaces in Japan.The volume contends for critical, transformational approaches to “language education” to be contextualized, sociohistorically sensitive and community-based.As such, the volume challenges critically-oriented stakeholders in language teacher education to revisit how they conceptualize and approach identity, experience and injustice manifesting in communities and language education (including theory, research, teacher education, policy, curriculum, materials development, teaching, assessment and hiring practices).The volume serves as a catalyst for readers to revisit what frames their own “seeing,” and as a foundation to engage with their own contexts and communities.