September 11, 2025

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LIFE

Language

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

By Yaeko Kabe

Some employees value the convenience; others feel trapped by after-hours texts and social expectations embedded in office messaging culture.

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

By Yuko Tamura

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

By Yaeko Kabe

From Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri to Tokyo’s Sumida fireworks, Japan’s summer festivals offer history, spectacle — and a chance to learn some vocabulary.

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.

By Yuko Tamura

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?

By Yuko Tamura

Fireworks and festivals are part of the traditional Japanese summer, but what do people associate with the season these days?

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

By Eric Margolis

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

By Yuko Tamura

In Kyoto, a polite offer of tea might really mean “please leave.” Learn how to decode Kansai’s indirect dialect through a few phrases.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.

The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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