A draft summary released on August 4, 2026 (revised after the meeting) by MEXT's Central Council for Education's Japanese Language Working Group. High school required subjects would keep their two-subject framework, tentatively named "Contemporary Japanese I" and "Language Culture I." Elective subjects would restructure the current "Logical Japanese," "Literary Japanese," "Japanese Expression," and "Classical Inquiry" (4 units each) into a 4-unit "Contemporary Japanese II" and "Language Culture II," taken by the large majority of students, and newly establish 2-unit advanced subjects "Argument and Criticism," "Dialogue and Expression," "Literature and Creative Writing," and "Classics and Culture" (all tentative names).
The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics published an article on August 27, 2026, explaining why dialect accents persist even in standard Japanese, stating that the sound features babies learn first are the hardest to lose even in adulthood.
On August 18, 2026, a government expert working group examining a Japanese-language and civic-systems learning program for foreign residents held its first meeting. It has six members and is chaired by Susumu Takahashi. The government aims to begin a pilot during fiscal 2028.
In an age of deepening division, Rorty's thought asks whether people can live together even without shared premises. This piece explores the theme of 'others and rightness,' commonly tested in modern Japanese and essay-writing exams.
Was Momotaro really just? An introduction to philosophy that uses folktales as a starting point to question what we take for granted, conveying the sheer enjoyment of thinking itself.
The major work of thinker Karatani Kojin is released in paperback. It rethinks what is taken for granted through a perspective that reads the shape of society from "the way exchange is carried out."
[What Happened] A newspaper published a review of philosopher Shinji Kajitani's book 'Childrearing as Thought.' The book is introduced as one that reframes childrearing not as mere task or instinct but as 'a philosophy worthy of serious thought.'
[Why It Matters] We tend to think of childrearing and education as technical problems of finding the 'right way' to do things. But asking 'what does it mean to raise a child' and 'how does the person raising the child also grow' leads to questions about the nature of humanity and society itself. The ability to read critical essays trains us to question what we take for granted and think in our own words.
[Going Deeper] The author is known for practicing 'philosophical dialogue,' valuing spaces where questions are shared rather than answers simply given. Behind the discussion of childrearing as thought lies a broader questioning of a society that has undervalued the work of care. When reading critical essays, the key is to grasp what assumptions the author is questioning and what they are trying to argue.
[Think About It] What experiences do you personally connect with the word 'raise' or 'nurture'?
It would be a waste to simply parse the parts of speech in 'Spring is dawn' from The Pillow Book and stop there. Why was Sei Shōnagon moved by the morning sky? Comparing that to moments you yourself find beautiful today makes the classics suddenly feel personal. Classical literature is useful for two reasons: (1) the strength of words that have survived a thousand years (universal understanding of humanity), and (2) training in logically reading 'unknown grammar,' just like with a foreign language. It's a subject where you can experience firsthand what it means for something to be conveyed across eras, not just study for exams.
Do you think of Japanese language study as just a subject for memorization? In fact, language is a subject well suited to a scientific approach of "observation and hypothesis testing." For example, the so-called "ra-nuki" forms (like mireru instead of mirareru, or tabereru instead of taberareru) can be explained not as corruption of the language but as a regular change aiming to express the potential form in a different way. Dialect distribution maps also reveal patterns such as the "dialect concentric circles theory," in which older forms of words remain in outlying regions. Asking "why does it change that way" before judging language as "correct" or "incorrect" is a perspective directly connected to the ability to read both classical and modern Japanese texts.
The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) held its 299th NINJAL Salon. Research findings were presented analyzing TV subtitles to study the 'phonetically altered forms' (such as 'yappari' becoming 'yappa') that Japanese language learners need to know. The findings offer profound implications for language education on the divergence between spoken and written language and pragmatic change.
On June 1, 2026, the Japan Foundation's Japanese language learning material 'Irodori' added a pre-intermediate (A2/B1) level. It aims to cultivate practical Japanese language ability rooted in everyday life situations and allows learners to develop the four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in a balanced way. Its correspondence with the CEFR offers a way to consider how language ability is measured from the perspective of language education.
CEFR: A1<A2<B1<B2<C1<C2
The technology behind the news
Brute-Forcing About 500,000 Variants Through Machine Learning Revealed 'Start Signals' in About 60% of Human Genes