Recently, more studies have focused on L2 learners' psychological traits such as attitude, motivation, and anxiety; however, these studies are often conducted within the same cultural groups. This study conducted a cross-cultural examination of motivation and anxiety between 71 Japanese university students learning English and 60 American university students learning Japanese. The results of a 40-item questionnaire showed that American university students who chose to study Japanese, a difficult language for English speakers, tend to be more motivated and make greater efforts than Japanese students who study English as a compulsory subject. Although Japanese students have higher L2 proficiency, they feel greater anxiety, especially while speaking English in class. Data reduction through factor analysis extracted four factors, and Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated among them; these demonstrated that in both groups, learners having higher international posture have a greater desire to learn L2, and they report making greater efforts to improve L2. Language anxiety showed different characteristics between the two groups: Japanese students' language anxiety had no significant relations with other variables, whereas American students' language anxiety was negatively correlated with their desire to improve their Japanese language proficiency.

研究論文