Recent research on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching in Japan has pointed out inconsistencies between the reforms implemented by the Ministry of Education (MEXT) and the textbooks it prescribes. However, if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture, we can see that behind this contradiction, the textbooks at issue are implicitly relaying and reinforcing the government's ideologies, possibly affecting young learners' identities. In order to provide a clearer view on this subject, a corpus of foreign language textbooks was collected and analysed through discourse analysis approaches such as Hyland's framework for the analysis of stance and engagement. The findings hint at a deep connection between the ideas the authors foster through discourse and Japanese fundamental education laws and teaching culture. English textbooks can be perceived as highly ideological, pressuring students to fit the "good international citizen" image promoted by the Japanese government.