National
Researchers hurt at Ibaraki nuclear facility
At least four researchers suffer internal radiation exposure after an experiment on elementary particles goes awry at a Japan Atomic Energy Agency facility.
Language | BILINGUAL Oct 31, 2011
This Halloween watch out for yūrei of all kinds
by Matt Alt
Urameshiyā! (うらめしやぁ！) Oops! Didn’t notice you there. Don’t mind me. I was just practicing my Japanese ghost-call. “Urameshiyā!” is pretty much the standard opening line for any self-respecting Japanese ghost. It’s nonetheless a word that is peculiarly tough to translate, but in a nutshell ...
Language | BILINGUAL Oct 24, 2011
Foreign films' Japanese titles often read like riddles
by Mark Schilling
Japanese distributors of foreign films usually follow the path of least resistance in titling their products for the local market, either rendering the title in katakana or translating it more or less directly. One recently released example is the shocker “The Last Exorcism,” whose ...
Language | BILINGUAL Oct 17, 2011
Desperately seeking the lost art of nanpa
by Kaori Shoji
One of my cousins spent four weeks in a hinanjo (避難所, evacuation shelter) after the Tohoku disaster, and during that time she experienced the moteki (モテキ, a time when one is gloriously attractive to the opposite sex) of her life. Now in her 40s ...
Language | BILINGUAL Oct 10, 2011
Harnessing intuition to boost kanji comprehension
by Mark Schreiber
Many years ago, the manager at a hotel where I was staying in Taiwan informed me that his boss was ailing due to diabetes. Well, that’s not exactly what he said. Dick Chang’s exact words were, “I not know how to say in English, ...
Language | BILINGUAL Oct 3, 2011
A short history of big gaffes by Japanese politicians
by Michael Hoffman
“Kokoro kara owabi mōshi-agemasu” (「心からお詫び申し上げます」 “I apologize from my heart”). The hearts of Japanese politicians must be bottomless indeed, for all the apologies that seem to ferment there. Their mouths, meanwhile, are on automatic pilot, sowing shitsugen (失言, gaffe, slip of the tongue) after ...
Language | BILINGUAL Sep 19, 2011
When men were men and smoked like chimneys
by Kaori Shoji
The question “tabako wo osui ni narimasuka?” (「タバコをお吸いになりますか」”Do you happen to be a smoker?”) is something you don’t hear all that often. So many public venues in the Tokyo area have banned smoking altogether, or simply operate on the assumption that no one in ...
Language | BILINGUAL Sep 5, 2011
National child allowance threatened by rebuilding cost
by Michael Hoffman
Kodomo teate (子供手当て, child allowance) is a benign, beneficent social policy rooted in horror, having first seen the light of day in certain European countries that had been dangerously depopulated by World War I. World War II and its carnage helped spread the idea, ...
Language | BILINGUAL Aug 22, 2011
Whose fault is the rise and fall of the Japanese ojisan?
by Kaori Shoji
The Japanese ojisan (おじさん, middle-aged and older male) hasn’t been too genki (元気, full of cheer) or assertive lately. Just the other day, I witnessed a company nomikai (飲み会, drinking party) at a beer garden where the only persons swilling nama (ナマ, draft beer) ...
Language | BILINGUAL Aug 8, 2011
Goro-awase system spins off numbers you won't forget
by Mark Schreiber
One boast you’ll never hear from me is that I have a good head for numbers. I’m all right up to two figures beyond a decimal point — I know that 3.14 approximates to the 円周率 (enshūritsu, Pi, i.e., the ratio of a circle’s ...
Language | BILINGUAL Aug 1, 2011
Japan finally seems to be shifting from nuclear power
by Michael Hoffman
Post-nuclear Japan? Probably not any time soon, but Naoto Kan last month became Japan’s first prime minister ever to take a step in that direction. He said: “Genpatsu ni izon shinai shakai wo mezasubeki da” (“原発に依存しない社会を目指すべきだ, We should aim to be a society that ...
Language | BILINGUAL Jul 18, 2011
Goodbye summertime blues, hello summer proper
by Kaori Shoji
The late, great rock musician Kiyoshiro Imawano covered Eddie Cochran’s classic “Summertime Blues” back in the 1980s, and the lyrics were prophetically brilliant. Basically, his song pointed out the awfulness of summertime in Japan — and how the Japanese would go for a dip ...
Language | BILINGUAL Jul 4, 2011
Today's youth have it hard, but is it worse than before?
by Michael Hoffman
Young people the world over are stuck with the world as it is, a world they had no hand in making. From the sidelines they blame their elders for this stupidity and that, and vow to do better when their turn comes, only to ...