All articles
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From “Kokujikō” to Accredited Schools: The Japanese Language School Accreditation System That Began in 2024
The Act on the Accreditation of Japanese Language Education Institutions, which took effect on April 1, 2024, launched a system under which the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology accredits Japanese language schools, and a new national qualification, the “Registered Japanese Language Teacher.” This article covers the three programs — for study, for work, and for daily life — the relationship with the previous “kokujikō” schools, and the accreditation results and Japanese Language Teacher Examination figures published as of September 2026.
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Rebuilt to a Viennese Design 14 Years After a Fire: The Odesa Opera House
Odesa's theater held its first performance season in 1810 and burned down in 1873. The current building, designed by Fellner and Helmer of Vienna, opened in 1887 and has undergone repeated reinforcement work against a sinking foundation. Drawing on three encyclopedias and UNESCO's listing, this article traces its history, including where sources disagree on the dates.
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October 1932: A Kharkiv Institute Splits the Lithium Nucleus
The Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology was founded in 1928, and on October 10, 1932, it succeeded in splitting a lithium nucleus using accelerated protons. This article traces its relationship to the Cambridge experiment of the same year, Landau's theoretical division, the arrests of the 1930s, and the damage to its "Neutron Source" facility since 2022, drawing on encyclopedias and IAEA statements.
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The High School Equivalency Exam Is Held Twice a Year: “Informatics” Added From FY2026, Bringing It to 9 or 10 Subjects
Even without graduating from high school in Japan, passing MEXT's High School Equivalency Exam qualifies you to sit university, junior college, and vocational school entrance exams. Anyone who will turn 16 by the end of the fiscal year can take it, regardless of nationality — but people who already hold university entrance qualifications cannot. This article covers the FY2026 subjects, exemptions, schedule, and exam fees (as of September 2026).
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How Far Back Can the Faceless Cloth Doll “Motanka” Really Be Traced?
The motanka, a small doll made by wrapping cloth and tying it with thread, is sometimes introduced with claims that "the face is left blank to ward off evil" or that it "continues an unbroken line from the Trypillia culture." Reading encyclopedias and papers that document museum holdings, what can actually be confirmed is a 20th-century village doll, and a new form now being recreated.
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The EJU Is Held in June and November; Overseas Venues Are 17 Cities in Asia
The Examination for Japanese University Admission (EJU), required by many schools of international students entering a Japanese university, is held every year in June and November. Subjects are Japanese, science, general subjects, and mathematics, chosen to match what your target school specifies. Overseas venues are limited to 17 Asian cities, with none in Ukraine or nearby countries. 950 schools use it (as of September 2026).
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Officials Had a Year to Learn Ukrainian: The “Ukrainization” That Began in 1923
On August 1, 1923, the Soviet Ukrainian government ordered officials to learn both Ukrainian and Russian within a year, on pain of dismissal. This article traces the content of the decisions behind "Ukrainization," which began as part of the Soviet Union's broader policy of "indigenization"; how it played out in the capital, Kharkiv; the figures for schools and newspapers; and its reversal in the early 1930s.
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Pysaty and Napysaty: Perfective and Imperfective Aspect in Ukrainian Verbs
Most Ukrainian verbs come in pairs — one perfective, one imperfective. This article draws on the Academy's encyclopedia, its orthography rules, and its dictionaries to cover how these pairs are formed through prefixes, suffixes, or a different root; why perfective verbs have no present tense; the three forms used for the future; examples of the imperative; and why the aspect distinction does not map one-to-one onto Japanese's own past/non-past distinction.
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Does One in Ten Speak Surzhyk, or One in Five? A Mixed Speech That Changes with How You Count
Surzhyk is a form of speech mixing Ukrainian and Russian. Its name comes from mixed grain flour. Depending on the survey, the share of speakers who use it comes out at 11–18% when interviewers judge by ear, and close to one in five say they speak "both about equally" when asked directly. This article lays out how dictionaries and encyclopedias describe it, why survey figures diverge, how it is evaluated, and how it appears in literature and on stage.
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99% of Seal Requirements Abolished, but the Registered Seal Remains: Japan’s Hanko and Seal Registration
In a 2020 review, 99.4% of the procedures that required a seal for dealings with the national government or elsewhere were abolished or set on a path toward abolition. What remains are procedures that use a "jitsuin" (registered seal) recorded with your city, ward, town, or village, together with a seal registration certificate. Seal registration is set by each municipality's own ordinance, and even which characters a foreign resident may register on a seal differs by ward. This article compares the guidance of three Tokyo wards.