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January 15, 2025
 

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Japan’s ski resorts are popular with tourists and knowing some basic Japanese will help you navigate the slopes a lot easier.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Japanese ski vocabulary: Hit the books before you hit the slopes
Knowing some basic terms will help you graduate from that linguistic bunny slope in no time.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Start the new year with a fresh approach to teaching Japanese
It’s important for language instructors to update their methods to best appeal to their younger students.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Small letter, big impact: A little 'tsu' makes all the difference
When reading the small "tsu," shorten the preceding vowel slightly and then start with the sound of the subsequent consonant.
Book Santa is a program that delivers books to children in need for Christmas, but it also operates year-round.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 17, 2024
Looking for ways to be charitable in Japan? Give the gift of reading.
By Yuko Tamura
Book donations are just one of many ways you can give back to the community during the holidays.
Actor Sadao Abe accepts the 2024 U-Can New Word and Popular Phrase Award for ふてほど (futehodo), the abbreviated title for his series, “Futekisetsu nimo Hodo ga Aru!” (“Extremely Inappropriate!”).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 12, 2024
How often do Japan's buzzwords make it into the vernacular?
By Yuko Tamura
We crown a new one every year, but trendy terms tend to disappear from public consciousness if they're related to pop culture.
People walk around an outlet mall in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture. At stores across Japan, clerks use a form of polite language called "manyuaru keigo," literally, “manual honorifics,” named for the service manuals they study it from.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 6, 2024
Japan's honorific language can be challenging for native speakers, too
By Yaeko Kabe
According to surveys, more than half of those in their teens, 20s and 30s, believe they cannot use "keigo," or honorific language, appropriately.
Customers enter Aeon's Shinagawa Seaside store in Tokyo for a Black Friday sale in 2022.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 29, 2024
Master this double negative to better express your Black Friday urges
By Yuko Tamura
What better time to learn how to say you can't resist a deal than on a weekend of discounted shopping.
With Labor Thanksgiving Day approaching in Japan, it's a good time to show some appreciation to your colleagues.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 20, 2024
You don’t need an onion bouquet to say thanks — just the right words
By Yuko Tamura
Nov. 23 is Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan and Nov. 28 is Thanksgiving in the United States. That makes it a good time to learn how to show your appreciation.
As the weather gets colder, we are seeing an uptick in cases of influenza as well as COVID-19.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 13, 2024
The Japanese you need to get vaccinated before winter comes
By Eric Margolis
With strains of both COVID-19 and the flu circulating, learn the words that will help you navigate a visit to the clinic.
A picture of the writer with his sibling and grandparents sits alongside double “Best of” CDs by British rock group the Beatles. Music by the band continues to conjure memories for the writer of staying at his grandparents’ home.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 7, 2024
Hearing a song from the past and expressing nostalgia in Japanese
By Ansel Swindells
You're in a cafe and suddenly a song from the past starts to play. How do you tell your Japanese friends that you're in the "time slip"?

Strong quake strikes southwestern Japan
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck southwestern Japan at 9:19 p.m. on Monday evening
Japanese companies rush to up English-language disclosures in 2025
The Tokyo Stock Exchange will soon require some companies to publish their financials in English in addition to Japanese.
Osaka Expo kicks off pavilion reservation lottery amid sales concerns
The mascot character of the Osaka Expo promotes the event at Tokyo's Haneda Airport last week.
Japan top diplomat visits South Korea amid political turmoil in Seoul
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (left) and his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, shake hands during their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday.
Japan farm ministry aims to dispatch corporate workers to rural areas
To counter the impact of aging rural demographics, the agriculture ministry is introducing a new initiative to dispatch corporate personnel to rural areas to increase the number of people engaged with farming communities.

Podcast

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

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers
mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers

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