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August 12, 2025
 

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NIHONGO

Heavy traffic on the nation's highways is just as much a part of the Bon holiday period as visiting ancestral graves.
LIFE / Bilingual
Aug 7, 2025
Brave the Bon holiday traffic to discover tourism gems off the beaten path
Learn how to ask about secret spots, regional dishes and specialty gifts using natural Japanese structures on your summer travels.
Incredibly popular in summer, Japanese wind chimes are said to cool the mind by giving the wind a voice.
LIFE / Bilingual
Jul 31, 2025
A language built on the wind, from mountain gusts to wind chimes
A breeze is always appreciated in summer, and Japan’s rich wind vocabulary reflects a deep cultural connection to nature, poetry and everyday life.
It is recommended that screen time for children should be kept to under two hours a day.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 24, 2025
Study first, screens later: Japanese kids have summer projects to do
From book reports to free research, parents are helping kids build good habits — and grammar — over summer break.
A man takes part in Tokyo’s Sanja Matsuri by helping to carry a "mikoshi" (portable shrine). Many Japanese festivals are open to foreign residents and tourists to participate in.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 19, 2025
Dancers, festivals and one very useful Japanese grammar point
From Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri to Tokyo’s Sumida fireworks, Japan’s summer festivals offer history, spectacle — and a chance to learn some vocabulary.
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2025
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section for junior high school third-graders fell to its lowest since the current question format was introduced in fiscal 2019.
Apple’s Craig Federighi shows off a set of emoji at a conference on June 13, 2016. While the small pictures have proved helpful in conveying nuance in our texts, younger people are using them less often.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 11, 2025
An emoji used to say it all. Now it might say too much.
With World Emoji Day approaching, it's a good opportunity to recognize how important these digital pictures have become.
People carry a portable shrine at Sensoji temple during the Sanja Festival in May. The festival is one of the three largest in Tokyo.
LIFE / Language
Jul 5, 2025
What’s the first thing you think of when you think of a Japanese summer?
Fireworks and festivals are part of the traditional Japanese summer, but what do people associate with the season these days?
Shingo Kato, assistant manager at Homechigiru Driving School in Ise, Mie Prefecture, rides in a training vehicle with a smartphone equipped with the school’s translation app.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 30, 2025
Translation apps help break language barriers at Chubu driving schools
Some driving schools have refused enrollment of foreign nationals with limited Japanese skills, sources have said.
An illustration of a scene from the fourth act of "Aoto Zōshi Hana no Nishiki-e" by Toyokuni Utagawa III (1862).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 26, 2025
Take your first steps into the world of kabuki with these basic terms
The language of Japanese theater is full of double — even triple — meanings. Knowing the terminology is the first step in understanding it.
Though Kyotoites play down their reputation for not meaning what they say, there are certain phrases you should look out for if you’re invited to a home.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 20, 2025
How to get kicked out of a Kyoto home with a smile
In Kyoto, a polite offer of tea might really mean “please leave.” Learn how to decode Kansai’s indirect dialect through a few phrases.
Get those umbrellas out, rainy season has arrived in much of Japan.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 12, 2025
In the forecast for June — a lot of talk about the weather
From "tsuyu" to "amayadori," the current season has no shortage of vocabulary for downpours, floods and wet weather.
Serious labor shortages in the bus and taxi industries have prompted the government to consider easing language requirements for non-Japanese drivers.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2025
Eased language requirement proposed for non-Japanese bus and taxi drivers
Currently, foreign nationals wanting to work as bus or taxi drivers are required to have the N3 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
Reports claim that children with unusual names were being bullied at school and facing difficulties finding jobs.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 6, 2025
What’s in a name? With new guidelines, the Japanese government wants to know.
Japan now requires official furigana for names in the family register, aiming to limit overly creative "kira-kira" readings.
As humidity rises in the rainy season, it’s a good idea to get some moisture absorbers and place them around the home.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 30, 2025
How to talk about change in Japanese — one forecast at a time
Use the changing seasons as a springboard to learn how Japanese expresses cause-and-effect shifts.
Not only is the drawing of each frame an important part of the manga-making process, translation has increasingly demanded more attention as the art form gains popularity overseas.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 23, 2025
Manga translators walk a fine line between meaning and mayhem
Manga translators face linguistic puzzles, cultural minefields and online backlash — all for the love of a perfectly written speech bubble.
A few tweaks to the conversations you learn in your Japanese class will help you sound like a native when you step out the door.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 16, 2025
Closing the gap between what you learn and what you say in Japanese
When trying to sound natural in Japanese, sometimes you just need to know a single key word or phrase.
Nostalgic-looking photos can give off an emotional vibe, one that Japanese youth refer to as "emoi."
LIFE / Language / Vocabulary Boost
May 16, 2025
Speak like you scroll: A roundup of recent Japanese slang
A lot of new Japanese slang terms have their origins in — where else? — the internet.
A Japanese newspaper headline includes the word "tariff" in Japanese.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 9, 2025
Trump once called it his favorite word. Now, the Japanese version is all over the news.
Learning how to talk about tariffs, imports and exports is becoming increasingly necessary in everyday conversation.
Feelings of lethargy and anxiety can sometimes hit after the Golden Week holiday period has concluded. The Japanese call this the “May blues.”
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 1, 2025
Why the month of May feels tough and how language can help
The phenomenon known as the "May blues" can have serious ramifications if you don't deal with it.
As in other cultures, when someone shares bad news in Japanese it’s best to respond with supportive words.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 26, 2025
How to bring up bad news in Japanese
A few grammatical structures can help you talk about being sick, but set phrases will come in handy when the illness is more severe.
Millions told to evacuate as heavy rain sparks flooding and landslides in Kyushu
Heavy rain falls in the city of Kumamoto on Monday morning.
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.
Chinese vessels collide while pursuing Philippine boat in South China Sea
This handout video grab released and taken on August 11, 2025 by the Philippine Coast Guard shows an incident between a Chinese Navy vessel (left) and a Chinese Coast Guard ship as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
Weather agency warns of landslides and flooding in Kyushu as heavy rain continues
An embankment on the Amikake River that collapsed due to heavy rain in Aira, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Friday. Downpours continued in the Kyushu region over the weekend.
Tokyo’s WWII museums hold diverse views on war and peace
A carrier-based Type 52 Zero fighter marks the entrance foyer of Yasukuni Shrine's Yushukan, a museum that tells a more nuanced story of Japan's experience in World War II than the controversies around the shrine might suggest.
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.
At Himawari Shokudo 2, Italian food with a Japanese soul
At Himawari Shokudo 2, chef Hozumi Tanaka serves Italian-inspired fare with a focus on Toyama produce, such as this appetizer of lightly blanched "hotaru ika" (firefly squid) served atop mixed wild plants and a crepe prepared from "yamato-imo" yam.
Cheer with caution: Expert advises sports fans have game plan for extreme heat
A Cardinals fan fans himself during the seventh inning of a game against the Pirates in St. Louis, Missouri, in June 2022.
Australia's warship selection signals Japanese defense industry's arrival
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami-class frigate. Australia's selection of an upgraded version of the Mogami-class warship for its next frigate class could prove to be a watershed moment for Japan’s defense industry.
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
By Naoko Abe

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Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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