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August 11, 2026
 

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Midori Inagaki
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 Â鶹´«Ã½ 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
Â鶹´«Ã½ 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
Â鶹´«Ã½ 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 Â鶹´«Ã½ immigration charade
Until now, the quality and training of Japanese-language teachers were largely left to the private sector, including academia.
America¡¯s cyberforces grapple with cluster of deaths by suicide
The U.S. Cyber Command building (center) stands on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Many Indonesians named after Japanese anime characters
Some people in Indonesia are named Doraemon, the name of a lead character of the blockbuster anime series with the same title.
Yasukuni Shrine introduces ban on military attire and cosplay
People gather in front of thousands of lanterns on display at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on July 15 during the Mitama Matsuri, one of the capital's largest summer o-Bon festivals.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
J. League enters new era as league kicks off first fall-spring campaign
Players from each J. League club pose during a kickoff event on Monday ahead of the start of the 2026-27 campaign.
Speaking Japanese at the movies with ¡®Chiikawa¡¯
A "Chiikawa The Movie" poster is seen at Toho Cinemas in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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