Japan's Working Style Reform' initiative Japan has had a long tradition of lifetime employment policies and time-based wages. But with the Abe government's initiative to reform the work-life balance of the labour force, there have been some changes in the market. In this blog for Japanese learners, Japanese teacher Ayako Suzuki talks about how these reforms could affect how people take their new...

Japanese gardens When people talk about Japanese gardens, they usually refer to the beautiful and artistic traditional gardens that can be found in every prefecture across the country. But one of the things that are also interesting to look at the gardens that belong to individual Japanese families. Many Japanese houses feature small but immaculately kept gardens that can be a wonder to look at. ...

Japanese stationery Japanese stationary can be a great gift to give as a souvenir of your travels to Japan. There are many unique and well-designed pieces of stationery, including pens, mechanical pencils and cute color-themed or branded goods that can only be bought in specific stores. In this blog for Japanese learners, Maki Igarashi introduces some really unique and interesting stationery. Pl...

Water sports in Japan Since Japan is an island nation with many incredible beaches, going to the beach and enjoying some water sports is one of the country's main tourist draws. There are many prefectures well known for surfing, like Miyazaki and of course in the south the islands of Okinawa are extremely popular. From windsurfing to scuba diving and everything in between, you can find something ...

Japanese dialects Japanese dialects are often separated into two categories of eastern and western. But in reality, there are many variations and even some types of spoken ways that are not strictly dialects at all but completely different forms of the Japanese language family. It can be confusing to understand various people from different prefectures and Japanese people are often very interest...