今日吃瓜

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November 12, 2026
 

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LANGUAGE

Japan plans to develop an AI-powered language-learning app that lets overseas anime and manga fans practice Japanese through conversations with popular characters.
JAPAN / Media
Nov 9, 2026
Government betting on language app powered by anime and AI
The planned app would target young people overseas, allowing them to have AI-powered conversations in Japanese with popular anime characters.
Chiikawa products at the Kiddy Land Harajuku store in Tokyo
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2026
Chiikawa, brainrot and naphtha make 2026 buzzword shortlist
This year’s buzzword nominees offer a glimpse into a year defined by technology, economic uncertainty and internet memes.
An annual New Year calligraphy contest at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on Jan. 5
JAPAN / Society
Nov 5, 2026
Japanese calligraphy poised to join UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list
If approved, shodō would become 今日吃瓜 24th entry on the list, following the addition of traditional sake-making in 2024.
As of August this year, the number of registered Japanese language teachers was about 20,000.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2026
Japan faces shortage of language teachers for foreign workers
Of the survey’s respondents, 125 organizations, or 35.9%, said they had not secured sufficient numbers of teachers and had no prospects for doing so.
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.
The education ministry plans to help local governments strengthen their Japanese-language teaching programs through subsidies and expert guidance.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 19, 2026
Japan to expand language education for foreign residents
The education ministry plans to help local governments strengthen their teaching programs through subsidies and expert guidance.
Students take a Japanese class at a school in Suez, northern Egypt, on Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2026
Japanese-language classes begin at select schools in Egypt
The schools, established under a 2016 agreement, incorporate Japanese school practices such as classroom cleaning and student duty rotations.
A screenshot of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test website shows tests are held twice a year.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2026
Missed the JLPT? Here’s what you can do next
Even if you missed out on a spot for this year’s Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, you may have more options than you originally thought.
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.
Todor Panev and his three children, ages 7, 5 and 2, read a book in his native Macedonian.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Sep 6, 2026
How to navigate parenthood in a multilingual home
Language experts have advice for parents that should be reassuring in its simplicity: read, make friends and have fun.
A screenshot of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test website shows tests are held twice a year.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2026
Short JLPT application window leaves would-be test takers high and dry
Slots for the test in December were snapped up within three days after applications opened for most levels, and within a week for the remainder.
A relief worker delivers supplies to disaster survivors who continue to live in evacuation shelters in Uki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Aug. 19. In a survey targeting foreign nationals?living in Tokyo, 41.3% said they want to read information, such as about disasters, in easy Japanese.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2026
Easy Japanese in focus as way to deliver information to foreign nationals
A survey targeting foreign nationals?living in Tokyo found 41.3% want to read information in easy Japanese, higher than 35.9% seeking information in English.
Quebec Premier Christine Frechette (left) applauds during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Davie Shipyard in Levis, Quebec, Canada on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 25, 2026
How the French language contributed to the U.S.-Canada trade war
The dispute with the U.S. was not just about tariff demands but what Canada’s prime minister called unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebec culture.”
Judge Tomoko Akane arrives at the the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2024.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2026
Were Tokyo statements over U.S. sanctions on ICC chief softened in translation?
Official English versions of statements made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and the Foreign Ministry have spurred curiosity over whether language was softened in translation.
The education ministry is planning to upgrade its language-learning portal for foreign children studying Japanese.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2026
Japanese-learning portal for foreign children to be upgraded
The portal site, currently available in Japanese, will be offered in multiple languages and learning and teaching materials will be expanded.
Hayato Suzuki, state minister at the Cabinet Office (center), speaks during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2026
Japan starts planning language program for foreign residents
The program would also assist in helping residents understand local systems and rules, and is hoped to be trialed in fiscal 2028.
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.
Institutions should draw on unconventional concepts to challenge entrenched assumptions to help navigate complex issues that leave policymakers stumped.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 5, 2026
New words to live by, new worlds to occupy
Institutions and policymakers should draw on unconventional concepts from diverse traditions to challenge entrenched assumptions and navigate complex change more creatively.
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.
A baked clay fragment called the Flood Tablet dating to the 7th century B.C., inscribed in cuneiform in the Akkadian language, presents the account of a great flood in the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, at the British Museum in London, Britain, in 2022.
WORLD / Society
Jul 28, 2026
Study documents a precipitous decline in the number of languages
During a period spanning the first millennium B.C. and ?first millennium ?A.D., humankind may have spoken tens of thousands of different languages, compared to about 7,500 now.
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

Famima Park Azabudai is a concept store by FamilyMart that combines convenience store staples with branded apparel, merchandise and a landscaped outdoor space.
Convenience stores, toilets and the allure of everyday Japan
By Elizabeth Beattie

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