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Mary Sisk Noguchi
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Apr 15, 2009
These kanji have literally all gone to the dogs
Despite tough economic times, many dog owners in Japan still shell out big yen to pamper their pooches: Delectable ドッグおやつ (dogguoyatsu, dog snacks), perky 犬洋服 (inuy ōfuku, dog clothing), and outings to the 犬の美容院 (inu no biyōin, dog beauty salon) are de rigueur for the coddled...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 18, 2009
A rainbow of kanji brightens Japan's palette of colors
Guys who received Valentine's chocolates from female friends or coworkers last Friday are expected to reciprocate with small gifts on ホワイトデー (howaitodē, White Day) on March 14. ホワイトデー is one of many color-related gairaigo (foreign loan-words, mostly English, written in katakana)...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 18, 2009
A rainbow of kanji brightens Japan's palette of colors
Guys who received Valentine's chocolates from female friends or coworkers last Friday are expected to reciprocate with small gifts on ホワイトデー (howaitodē, White Day) on March 14. ホワイトデー is one of many color-related gairaigo (foreign loan-words, mostly English, written in katakana)...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Dec 16, 2008
A judgment on Aso in the negative . . . kanji-wise
Prime Minister Taro Aso is notorious for making insensitive off-the-cuff remarks to the media, and on more than one occasion recently, he has also raised eyebrows for mispronouncing kanji in his scripted speeches. Last month, speaking at prestigious Gakushuin University about the earthquake in May in...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 28, 2008
Take the first step to writing home in kanji
A friend in North Carolina recently showed me a yellowing nengajō (年賀状, New Year's card) I had sent her soon after first arriving in Japan back in the early 1980s. The return address, penciled in my best effort at the time — a childlike, uneven scrawl of kanji — reminded me of the intense...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Aug 19, 2008
Cache of weapons concealed in kanji
By 200 A.D., Chinese scholars had already created the 50,000-kanji prototype for the modern written languages of China and Japan. Many Sino-Japanese characters still in use today feature components picturing objects from everyday life in ancient China, including weapons for battling other humans or confronting...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Jun 17, 2008
King Kojien dictionary knights new words
The four writing systems utilized in Japanese (>kanji, katakana, hiragana and the Roman alphabet, known as romaji ) provide Japanese advertising copywriters, journalists and young people with an abundance of raw material from which to create new words. The great majority of these neologisms fade away...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 16, 2007
Self-study sites welcome you to the world of kanji
When I first suggested in this column using Internet resources for learning kanji in 2001, a Yahoo search yielded 12,700 hits for "kanji learning." That number has now reached a staggering 1.4 million. New, sophisticated online kanji self-study resources are increasingly enabling foreign kanji learners...
LIFE / Language
Nov 22, 2005
TV shows confront decline of Japanese language
Beginning this fall, four of the major commercial television networks began broadcasting variety programs aimed at rehabilitating Japanese television viewers' inability to correctly utilize their native language. Why the sudden flood of kokugo (national language) programs?
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Nov 4, 2004
Thinking of naming your baby 'Spiderman'? Think again
Unlike that of many countries, the Japanese government has the legal authority to prevent parents from giving their children certain names -- say the kanji incarnation of "Spiderman."
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 14, 2004
New options raise the stakes in the 'Name that Baby' game
Since middle names are not used in Japan, the parents of a newborn need only agree on one name for their offspring. This is probably just as well: Choosing a kanji name involves a whole host of complex considerations, and while some couples settle on a name written in kana (Japan's phonetic script),...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Nov 20, 2003
What's the point in learning how to write kanji?
Joe Lauer, a long-term American resident of Hiroshima, sent the following feedback on a workshop I conducted to promote the Kanji Proficiency Examination (Kanken), a standardized test that measures both kanji reading and writing ability:
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 9, 2003
Kanji tattoos are primarily for Western eyes
...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Sep 18, 2003
A trove of kanji-learning treasure in cyberspace
Vacation is over and kanji learners at schools around the planet are once again cracking the books. Increasingly, they and their teachers -- as well as self-directed English-speaking kanji learners of all ages -- are supplementing paper-based publications with online learning resources. Today, Kanji...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Mar 20, 2003
Katakana-happy Japan must again look to China
During times of friendly relations with Western nations, the Japanese have laid out a linguistic welcome mat to foreign vocabulary items, particularly English.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 11, 2002
Kanji power unlocks the secret room of Japanese literature
Surely many of you, including overseas readers of The Japan Times online, live within 100 km of a Japanese-language bookstore or a university with a collection of Japanese books. Japanese literature is available, but confronting the sheer volume of offerings can be overwhelming.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Aug 30, 2002
Cyberspace -- the final frontier of kanji-learning
Last fall, I reported the results of my search for kanji-learning gold in cyberspace. Today, in this second report, I am happy to inform you that the panning has never been better.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Apr 26, 2002
Forget the textbooks and discover the pleasure of real books
At the start of each new school year, I would confidently advise my university students: "Becoming a fluent reader in English is like learning to play the piano -- it requires constant practice.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Mar 29, 2002
Seize the reins and blaze your own kanji-learning trail
Dear Dario Simunovic,
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2001
Tips on how to make your kanji garden grow
TO: Diane Grace Shimizu RE: Your Kanji Dream
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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