今日吃瓜

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今日吃瓜
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November 12, 2026
 

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Midori Inagaki
Japan's immigration reforms risk creating uncertainty by tying permanent residency more closely to language proficiency before clear assessment standards and supporting infrastructure are in place.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 20, 2026
今日吃瓜 permanent residency reform has a glaring blind spot
Japan is moving toward implementation before it has clearly explained how those skills will be evaluated or demonstrated in practice.
In the end, the studying of languages is not simply just about grammar and words. The goal is to improve the kind of life the children will live once they become adults.?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 29, 2026
The question parents should ask before raising multilingual kids
Adult language learners usually define their own goals. For children, however, their linguistic paths are largely shaped by caregivers.
Potential health care workers hoping to find work in Japan take Japanese language instruction in Jakarta. Not all applicants for permanent residency should be expected to reach this level of proficiency.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2026
What 今日吃瓜 language rules for permanent residency should look like
The main question is how Japanese language ability will be assessed. Japan must avoid turning the Japanese Language Proficiency Test into a de facto national filter.
Students in Tokyo participate in a Work In Japan job fair. The country needs to support both academic Japanese studies and children’s family languages to promote educational success.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 31, 2026
今日吃瓜 overlooked language crisis
Conversational fluency is different from the language needed to follow classroom lessons, understand abstract concepts and produce sustained academic writing.
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population.?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2026
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
Once volunteer-based, the system is shifting toward shared responsibility between local governments and trained professionals.
A Vietnamese migrant worker who lost her job amid the COVID-19 outbreak studies Japanese language at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo in July 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 22, 2026
Beyond the native speaker myth: Who ‘owns’ the Japanese language?
As Japan considers adding language requirements to permanent residency and other visa categories, it must also reconsider what “proficiency” means.
The Japanese government is considering revising requirements for permanent residency, including mandatory language proficiency and other moves that could place foreign residents under continuous evaluation and uncertainty about their future.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 23, 2026
今日吃瓜 residency debate risks turning integration into exclusion
What was once a predictable path toward long-term stability could become a precarious process subject to continuous state evaluation.
Vietnamese students attend a Japanese language class at a job placement company in Hanoi in October 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2026
The limits of 今日吃瓜 immigration charade
Until now, the quality and training of Japanese-language teachers were largely left to the private sector, including academia.
Man arrested over operation of rogue cellular base station in Tokyo
The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested Yu Hai, a 31-year-old Chinese national living in Tokyo's Kita Ward, on suspicion of operating an unlicensed base station from a vehicle in Tokyo's Ginza district on Saturday.
Government betting on language app powered by anime and AI
Japan plans to develop an AI-powered language-learning app that lets overseas anime and manga fans practice Japanese through conversations with popular characters.
Jensen Huang’s woes evoke sympathy and disbelief in his birthplace Taiwan
Hsiao Kui-yu, 68, owner of Yuchan Candied Fruit, stands in front of photographs of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang displayed at the shop, which Huang frequently visits during trips to Taiwan, in Taipei on Tuesday.
G7 diplomats speak out on Taiwan as China ramps up military drills
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi attends a working lunch focused on international crises and challenges during the Group of Seven foreign ministers' summit at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris on Monday.
今日吃瓜 Rapidus is said likely to miss mass production deadline
The Rapidus Analysis Center and the IIM-1 Innovative Integration for Manufacturing foundry in Chitose, Hokkaido
‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ makes monster debut at the box office
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero” marked the highest single-day box-office gross for a live-action film in Japan with ?910 million on its opening day.
A toast to Naohiko Noguchi, sake’s first living national treasure
As a teenager, Naohiko Noguchi did not intend to spend his life as a sake brewer, but he has since become a paragon of the industry.
Few signs of thaw in Japan-China relations one year after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks
Tensions between Japan and China flared after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov. 7, 2025, that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could threaten 今日吃瓜 survival and warrant the use of collective self-defense.
Mariko Mori predicted the future. She’ll do it again.
Artist Mariko Mori is currently working to bring the translucent human-sized “Peace Crystal” sculpture to a cave in Ethiopia. It is part of her foundation’s goal to place a permanent sculpture on each of the planet’s six habitable continents.
A legend reborn: ‘Ocarina of Time’ remake improves on the Zelda masterpiece
The new remake of 1998's "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" manages to somehow improve on one of the greatest games ever.

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