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September 21, 2025
 

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NIHONGO

The promise of autumn is one of relaxation and just being cozy overall.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 18, 2025
How Japanese captures the subtle shift into autumn
From the equinox to cooler mornings, Japanese grammar and expressions reflect how the season gradually deepens into autumn.
Five members of the Japan Foundation's Nihongo Partners program (front) gather at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Japan dispatches five language education 'partners' to India
This is the first time that Nihongo Partners under a program run by the Japan Foundation are dispatched to a South Asian country.
Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce kisses partner — now finacee — Taylor Swift as they celebrate after his team won Super Bowl LVIII in 2024.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 10, 2025
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s announcement hits all the right notes in Japan
Japanese culture is in the depths of a nostalgia wave, and the engagement announcement for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce fits in with it nicely.
Google has said that its AI Mode will soon be available in Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese globally.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 9, 2025
Google’s AI Mode to offer Japanese language support
Along with Japanese, Google said it will also gradually be offered in Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese globally starting Tuesday.
Experts say staying off your phone and sticking to a sleep schedule can help those who have trouble dozing off.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 2, 2025
Mark Japan’s Sleep Day by making some lifestyle changes
The Japanese are not getting enough sleep. Luckily, everyone from scientists to Shohei Ohtani are offering solutions.
A boy looks at samples of Pokemon toys available with the McDonald's Happy Meal set in Tokyo earlier this month.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 28, 2025
How to complain politely: Lessons from the McDonald’s Pokemon debacle
In Japan, the right phrasing can mean the difference between a request and harassment.
A lot of Japanese workers join online group texts to communicate with their coworkers, but at what point do those chats threaten a healthy work-life balance?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 22, 2025
Expressing annoyance with work group chats in Japanese
Some employees value the convenience; others feel trapped by after-hours texts and social expectations embedded in office messaging culture.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The change is expected to be approved within the current fiscal year, then gradually rolled out in school textbooks and other materials.
People walk past a time board at Hakata Station in Fukuoka. Luckily for those trying to catch a train, reading a clock is universal.
LIFE / Bilingual
Aug 15, 2025
Reading the Japanese clock: Are times a-changin'?
Learn how the Japanese tell time — from zero o’clock to 27 o’clock, and why 10 minutes "before" isn’t always clear.
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.
Bank of Japan to start unloading ETFs in surprise move that rattles market
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda said it would take a century for the bank to sell all its ETFs at the pace proposed.
Nippon Ishin urges cap on foreign residents in Japan
While not specifying what percentage of foreign residents should make up the total population, “we conveyed the message that the ratio should be kept as low as possible and that the current rapid pace of increase must be properly curbed,” said Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Fumitake Fujita.
Japan may see its first female PM despite limited progress on gender gap
Hard-line conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi has consistently been a public favorite in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election scheduled for Oct. 4.
Osaka Expo visitors top 20 million as crowds surge
Visitors at the Osaka Expo on Thursday.
Boom in business class travel from Japan fuels airlines profits
A business class suite of an Airbus SE A350-1000 aircraft operated by Japan Airlines is seen during a media preview at the company's hangar at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in January last year.
Behold the glory of Japan’s fruit boxes
Otherwise common sights in Japan's supermarkets, the country's fruit and veggie boxes can hide surprising symbols of local pride.
How Yuki Joseph Nakajima turned failures into breakout success at Tokyo worlds
Yuki Joseph Nakajima after finishing sixth in the men's 400-meter final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Thursday.
Robot tour guides in Tokyo offer way for those with disabilities to work
Tours are being offered in Tokyo using a shoulder-mounted robot equipped with a camera, speaker and microphone. The robot twitches its wing-like arms, which it can fold together as if in prayer when visiting a temple.
World Athletics stars relish Tokyo atmosphere after COVID-hit Olympics
Organizers of the World Athletics Championships said over 500,000 tickets had been sold and that they are expecting to end the event in front of large crowds this weekend.
Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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