Actually, Namie has recently sated in magazine interviews that she decided to sing in English with
no intention of catering to international audiences. She simply does it because she finds songs that are given to her by foreign producers or that have a "Western" aesthetic are fitted better for it. Basically it just sounds "
cool" to her.
Regardless, implementing English lyrics has introduced her to a wider audience. This is evident with her last album and the growing number of English language speaking fans on her facebook page.
