Section
People & Life
Everyday life, work and school. The voices of people connected with Ukraine.
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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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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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A World Heritage Site of 93 Beech Forests — Its Single Largest Component Is a Forest in Ukraine
The World Heritage site bringing together European beech forests began in 2007 with 10 locations in Slovakia and Ukraine, and by September 2026 had grown to 93 locations across 18 countries. The 15 locations in Ukraine account for roughly 30% of the total area, and the largest single component is Uholka–Shyrokyi Luh in Zakarpattia Oblast. This article also traces where the phrase “largest in Europe” comes from.
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3,185 Nests and “45,000 to 50,000 Pairs”: Counting Ukraine’s White Storks
The international census of the white stork began in 1934, and has been held every ten years since 1974. In the 8th census, in 2024, 3,185 nests were counted in Ukraine, and the organizing association estimated Ukraine's total breeding population at roughly 45,000 to 50,000 pairs. This article traces the difference between the counted nests and the estimate, how nest locations have changed, and stork folklore, drawing on an encyclopedia and census reports.
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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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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.
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“5-ban 25-go” or “123 Banchi”? How to Read a Japanese Address
A Japanese address is written starting from the prefecture and ends with a number after the town name. That final number works in one of two ways: a "jukyo hyoji" (residential address display) number assigned to a building, or a "chiban" land-registry number — and close to a quarter of Shinjuku Ward, along with all of Kyoto City, still uses chiban. This article also covers how postal codes are assigned and the order to use when writing an address in the Roman alphabet.
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машина Takes Seven Different Forms: Case and Declension in Ukrainian Nouns
Ukrainian nouns change form into seven cases depending on their role in a sentence. This article draws on the 2019 orthography and Ukrainian-language encyclopedias to set out the names and main functions of the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative, the four declension types, how prepositions combine with cases, and examples where Japanese particles do not map one to one.
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A Husband’s Mother Is свекруха, a Wife’s Mother Is теща: Ukrainian Kinship Terms
Ukrainian uses different words for a husband's mother and a wife's mother, and for a husband's siblings and a wife's siblings. This article draws on the dictionary and etymological dictionary of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to set out the terms for in-laws, for uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, and nieces, and for кум and кума, the words that link parents and godparents through a child's baptism.
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Take Your Prescription to the Pharmacy Within 4 Days: The Special Fee for Brand-Name Drugs, and Bringing Medicine From Abroad
A Japanese prescription must be taken to a pharmacy within 4 days, including the day it is issued. You can choose your own pharmacy, and showing your medication notebook can lower what you pay. From June 2026, the “special fee” for choosing an original brand-name drug that has a generic equivalent is half the price difference. If you bring prescription medicine into Japan from Ukraine or another country, the limit is a one-month supply.