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About This Page

This page introduces the variety of essays written by popular contemporary authors. Unless noted, all are in Japanese.

The author, さくらももこ, is known for writing a comic titled 『 ちびまる子ちゃん 』. The comic is based on her own childhood experiences and depicts the everyday life of a girl with a nickname of Chibi Maruko-chan. The author has been constantly writing casual and humorous essays, often recollecting her childhood memories. We have both the『 ちびまる子ちゃん 』 comic series and other essays by the author. 

To see a sample text in a new tab, please  click on the cover image or the title .

中島らも(1952-2004) started his career as a copyrigher but changed his path to become a prolific writer, publishing novels, essays, drama scripts and rakugo stories. He became popular with his "twisted sense of humour."  He is also active in the music industry when he formed his own band. He received the 13th Eiji Yoshikawa New Author Prize with his 『今夜、すべてのバーで』 and Mystery Writers of Japan Aaward with 『 ガダラの豚 』.

東海林（しょうじ）さだお

東海林さだお(1937-) is a well-known cartoonist, but he is also famous for his essays on food. His writing style is light and humorous and tends to pay particular attention toward regular food, such as bananas, miso soup, and eggd in udon noodles, rather than talk about gourmet meals. (added 5/2/2014)

Collection of Essays: 天声人語 = Vox Populi, Vox Deli (Bilingual)

A collection of essays which appear on the front page of Asahi Shinbun . Each essay is approx. 600 words. KU has collections published around 2000. Seach KU Online catalog with call number AC145 .T46 for more details. 

To see a sample text, please click on the cover image or the title .

Other Essays

Online Essay

• 村上さんのところ "Mr. Murakami's Place" -- Haruki Murakami's Advice Column Part of Haruki Murakami's official site. He answers questions sent to this site. He will also take questions in English. Questions will be accepted until Jan. 31, 2015.

Search from KU Collection

If you are looking for essays in Japanese available at KU, use this search box. If you know the author, search by last name, then first name, such as "Sakura, Momoko." Make sure to select "Author" in the search field option.:

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Read Real Japanese Essays

There is a world of difference between reading Japanese that has been specially contrived for students and reading real Japanese — that is, real-world Japanese written for native speakers. The contrived variety might be called schoolmarm Japanese: standard to the point of insipidity, controlled to the point of domestication, restricted to the point of impoverishment. The "Read Real Japanese" series, comprising one volume each of essays and fiction, provides the real thing — lively writings by contemporary authors.

"Read Real Japanese Essays" presents short works by eight established writers, including Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto. The essays are by turns humorous, insightful, and biting; all are stimulating works that will teach you a wealth about Japanese writing and motivate you to read more.

Following the form of real Japanese writing, the text runs from top to bottom, right to left. To guide you in your reading, each double-page spread features translations of nearly every sentence or phrase, making it possible to understand the meaning at a glance. Moreover, in the back of the book is a tailor-made Japanese-English dictionary covering all the words appearing in the essays, and a series of notes that elucidate issues of nuance, usage, grammar, and culture.

Best of all, the book comes with a free audio CD containing narrations of the works, performed by a professional actress. This will help you to get used to the sounds and rhythms of Japanese, as well as the speed at which the language is normally spoken.

For intermediates and beyond; for the classroom and for the car; for the intellect and for the ear: "Read Real Japanese Essays" is your gateway to the pleasures of reading first-rate nonfiction by Japanese authors — in the original.

Teach English in Japan

Join the leaders of English Education for Children in Japan!

10 Comments Login to comment

Azrael Apr. 29, 2008 05:04 pm JST

That's awesome. Indeed, there's a wide gap between classroom Japanese language and street, real life Japanese language. Only three years after coming to Japan (my scholarship program only provides 6 months of Japanese language course) I am able to hold conversational level with confidence.

They should come up with the viceversa for Japanese learning other languages. Needless to say, Engrish comes to mind. A book like this in Japanese high schools, to read and listen to Real English Essays, would boost the confidence of the students regarding their English capabilities, no doubt.

Sagecat Apr. 29, 2008 08:16 pm JST

Is there a beginners level book in this series? I'd love a book that only has 1 - 3 grade kanji in it, or something like that.

Chikatetsu Apr. 29, 2008 09:29 pm JST

there's more of a demand for graded readers than this kind of thing. What's the point of reading an essay in Japanese if there's a translation on the opposite page? It's like trying to teach Maths from a textbook with all the answers written next to the questions

PS love the blog Az

aedfed Apr. 30, 2008 03:52 am JST

Sagecat, try Hiragana Times. They send out a daily essay that has standard Japanese, hirgana, Romaji, and English.

The Real Japanese series, by definition, won't be restricted to grade 1-3 kanji.

zaichik Apr. 30, 2008 06:09 am JST

This book looks like it might be a good thing. There are other books out there that have texts that aren't made up specifically for the textbooks - we had one at university. It was dry as dust, though.

fireant Apr. 30, 2008 08:39 am JST

There's another book Getting into Japanese Literature, I believe the name is. It has stories by Natsume Soseki and Akutugawa. Then, you go to a website (speaking-japanese.com, I believe) and download someone reading the story. Native pronunciation, native writing. Plus, fortunately or not, the translation is on the opposite page. It comes with copius notes for vocabulary.

This book looks similar except with the non-dead authors and CD. I've asked many students who speak English well how they learned pronunciation and the naturalness of their speech and they almost always say, "Listening to movies, music, and native speakers.'

Did your textbook include the essay on plywood imports of 1972? Always a gripping tale, that one.

DeepAir65 Apr. 30, 2008 11:54 am JST

I tried hiragana times with my teacher a few years back - we decided that it was no good for intermediate level as the Japanese was very complicated to the level that I would say it is not "Real Japanese". Need to give this a look to see if any better.

Also for Japanese wanting to learn English the translations were a bit dodgy and using a lot of expressions etc that you would not use in everyday life...

jeancolmar May 2, 2008 08:30 am JST

This is brilliant. Let us hope this will have an impact somehow on how English is taught here.

Honen May 2, 2008 10:30 am JST

Fantastic idea. I have used Murakami's essays as a learning tool for myself in the past; it's a great idea, because for a learner, a short essay is much more digestible and therefore less discouraging than a full-length novel. I can attest that Murakami's essays are very engaging and insightful. Heck, I might even pick up this book.

Honen May 2, 2008 10:34 am JST

Another thing: The "schoolmarm Japanese" extends all the way to how Japanese is tested. Anyone who thinks that translation should be a piece of cake after passing 1-kyuu really ought to read this book. For starters, real-world Japanese sentences are typically three times longer than any sentence in the 1-kyuu reading section, and contain less information (like subjects) by which to orient yourself.

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How to improve your writing skills in Japanese

UPDATE | October 1, 2022

The ability to write Japanese, which is necessary for living in Japan. Here are four recommended ways to do just that.

• Copying example sentences from Japanese textbooks and reference books
• Write a 3-line diary in Japanese
• Decide on a theme and write a short essay.
• Post to SNS. write a comment. send a message.

In order to go on to higher education or find a job in Japan, you need to be able to write in Japanese. What kind of training do you do to improve your writing skills in Japanese? What should I do to improve my writing ability?

In this column, I will introduce four ways to improve your writing skills in Japanese!

1. Copy the example sentences from Japanese textbooks and reference books

Do you have any Japanese textbooks or reference books? The book can be used not only for reading, but also for improving your writing skills. It's easy to do. Just write an example sentence. You can write the example sentences in a notebook, or you can write them using computer software.

This method is very easy, but it can be a little boring. However, the example sentences in recent textbooks are created by Japanese teachers considering whether they will really use them in their daily lives. Therefore, if you write down the example sentences and memorize them as they are, they will be useful in your daily life.

If you write example sentences properly, you will be able to memorize grammar and words at the same time. If you think writing example sentences is too easy, start from the last page of your textbook. Many people haven't read the last page (maybe for the first time!), so it's a great practice.

2. Write a 3-line diary in Japanese

The next method is to write a diary in Japanese. Don't you think you have to write long sentences in your diary? But short sentences are fine. Write a lot of short sentences, until you have three lines. It can be a little tough at first.

When writing a diary, you don't have to write "I'm amazing". Rather than that, let's honestly write "bad self". "I couldn't study today," "I couldn't do the laundry even though the weather was nice," or "I slept until noon."

After I write about myself, I write about what happened today and what I noticed. "I took a walk and the wind felt good," "It seems that the neighborhood bakery is closed today," and "It's nice weather." If you write every day, you will get used to "writing".

3. Decide on a theme and try to write a mini composition.

A third way is to write an essay. Think writing is difficult? Actually, it's the same as a diary, and you should keep writing down what you're thinking. This composition is to improve your writing skills, so you don't have to show it to anyone. So feel free to get started.

It may be difficult to decide on a theme for writing, so I prepared a few themes. From the themes below, choose one that you think you can write, and try to write it in 200 to 400 characters. Even if it's not the theme below, you can write what you want to write.

"self-introduction" "Things I want to do in Japan" "My favorite 〇〇" "How to study Japanese" "How to spend your day off" "Friend 〇〇" "Let me introduce you to my family." "Recommended shop" "How to cook national dishes" "What I want to study more"

4. Post to SNS. write a comment. send a message.

Have you ever sent a message in Japanese on SNS (LINE, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)? You can improve your Japanese writing skills by using Japanese on SNS and messaging apps. However, the thing to be careful about with SNS is that there are people who read it.

Send messages with the other person in mind so that the person reading the message doesn't feel bad. The same is true when posting on SNS or writing comments.

And Japanese on SNS and messaging apps often uses "spoken language" rather than "written language". It's a different style of word than the Japanese used for higher education or job hunting, so be careful when using it properly. SNS is fun, so I want to make good use of it to improve my Japanese writing skills.

This time, I introduced four ways to improve your writing skills in Japanese. Please feel free to challenge yourself in whatever way you like. See you in the next column!

I teach Japanese at Japanese language schools and universities in Kyushu. I love games and manga. I also work as a coordinator and web writer to create a local Japanese language class for those who are studying Japanese.

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StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

How To Write In Japanese – A Beginner’s Guide

Do you want to learn how to write in Japanese , but feel confused or intimidated by the script?

This post will break it all down for you, in a step-by-step guide to reading and writing skills this beautiful language.

I remember when I first started learning Japanese and how daunting the writing system seemed. I even wondered whether I could get away without learning the script altogether and just sticking with romaji (writing Japanese with the roman letters).

I’m glad I didn’t.

If you’re serious about learning Japanese, you have to get to grips with the script sooner or later. If you don’t, you won’t be able to read or write anything useful, and that’s no way to learn a language.

The good news is that it isn’t as hard as you think. And I’ve teamed up with my friend Luca Toma (who’s also a Japanese coach ) to bring you this comprehensive guide to reading and writing Japanese.

By the way, if you want to learn Japanese fast and have fun while doing it, my top recommendation is  Japanese Uncovered  which teaches you through StoryLearning®. 

With  Japanese Uncovered  you’ll use my unique StoryLearning® method to learn Japanese naturally through story… not rules. It’s as fun as it is effective.

If you’re ready to get started,  click here for a 7-day FREE trial.

If you have a friend who’s learning Japanese, you might like to share it with them. Now, let’s get stuck in…

One Language, Two Systems, Three Scripts

If you are a complete beginner, Japanese writing may appear just like Chinese.

But if you look at it more carefully you'll notice that it doesn’t just contain complex Chinese characters… there are lots of simpler ones too.

Take a look.

それでも、 日本人 の 食生活 も 急速 に 変化 してきています 。 ハンバーグ や カレーライス は 子供に人気 がありますし 、都会 では 、 イタリア 料理、東南 アジア 料理、多国籍料理 などを 出 す エスニック 料理店 がどんどん 増 えています 。

Nevertheless, the eating habits of Japanese people are also rapid ly chang ing . Hamburgers and curry rice are popular with children . In cities , ethnic   restaurants serv ing Italian cuisine , Southeast Asian cuisine and multi-national cuisine keep increas ing more and more .

(Source: “Japan: Then and Now”, 2001, p. 62-63)

As you can see from this sample, within one Japanese text there are actually three different scripts intertwined. We’ve colour coded them to help you tell them apart.

(What’s really interesting is the different types of words – parts of speech – represented by each colour – it tells you a lot about what you use each of the three scripts for.)

Can you see the contrast between complex characters (orange) and simpler ones (blue and green)?

The complex characters are called kanji (漢字 lit. Chinese characters) and were borrowed from Chinese. They are what’s called a ‘logographic system' in which each symbol corresponds to a block of meaning (食 ‘to eat', 南 ‘south', 国 ‘country').

Each kanji also has its own pronunciation, which has to be learnt – you can’t “read” an unknown kanji like you could an unknown word in English.

Luckily, the other two sets of characters are simpler!

Those in blue above are called hiragana and those in green are called katakana . Katakana and hiragana are both examples of ‘syllabic systems', and unlike the kanji , each character corresponds to single sound. For example, そ= so, れ= re; イ= i, タ = ta.

Hiragana and katakana are a godsend for Japanese learners because the pronunciation isn’t a problem. If you see it, you can say it!

So, at this point, you’re probably wondering:

“What’s the point of using three different types of script? How could that have come about?”

In fact, all these scripts have a very specific role to play in a piece of Japanese writing, and you’ll find that they all work together in harmony in representing the Japanese language in a written form.

So let’s check them out in more detail.

First up, the two syllabic systems: hiragana and katakana (known collectively as kana ).

The ‘Kana' – One Symbol, One Sound

Both hiragana and katakana have a fixed number of symbols: 46 characters in each, to be precise.

Each of these corresponds to a combination of the 5 Japanese vowels (a, i, u, e o) and the 9 consonants (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w).

(Source: Wikipedia Commons )

Hiragana  (the blue characters in our sample text) are recognizable for their roundish shape and you’ll find them being used for three functions in Japanese writing:

1. Particles (used to indicate the grammatical function of a word)

は     wa     topic marker

が     ga      subject marker

を     wo      direct object marker

2. To change the meaning of verbs, adverbs or adjectives, which generally have a root written in kanji. (“Inflectional endings”)

急速 に     kyuusoku ni        rapid ly

増 えています       fu ete imasu     are increas ing

3. Native Japanese words not covered by the other two scripts

それでも     soredemo     nevertheless

どんどん     dondon     more and more

Katakana  (the green characters in our sample text) are recognisable for their straight lines and sharp corners. They are generally reserved for:

1. Loanwords from other languages. See what you can spot!

ハンバーグ     hanbaagu     hamburger

カレーライス     karee raisu     curry rice

エスニック     esunikku     ethnic

2. Transcribing foreign names

イタリア     itaria     Italy

アジア     ajia     Asia

They are also used for emphasis (the equivalent of italics or underlining in English), and for scientific terms (plants, animals, minerals, etc.).

So where did hiragana and katakana come from?

In fact, they were both derived from kanji which had a particular pronunciation; Hiragana took from the Chinese cursive script  (安 an →あ a), whereas katakana developed from single components of the regular Chinese script (阿 a →ア a ).

So that covers the origins the two kana scripts in Japanese, and how we use them.

Now let’s get on to the fun stuff… kanji !

The Kanji – One Symbol, One Meaning

Kanji  – the most formidable hurdle for learners of Japanese!

We said earlier that kanji is a logographic system, in which each symbol corresponds to a “block of meaning”.

食     eating

生     life, birth

活     vivid, lively

“Block of meaning” is the best phrase, because one kanji is not necessarily a “word” on its own.

You might have to combine one kanji with another in order to make an actual word, and also to express more complex concepts:

生 + 活   =   生活     lifestyle

食 + 生活   =  食生活     eating habits

If that sounds complicated, remember that you see the same principle in other languages.

Think about the word ‘telephone' in English – you can break it down into two main components derived from Greek:

‘tele' (far)  +  ‘phone' (sound)  = telephone

Neither of them are words in their own right.

So there are lots and lots of kanji , but in order to make more sense of them we can start by categorising them.

There are several categories of kanji , starting with the ‘pictographs' (象形文字 sh ōkei moji), which look like the objects they represent:

(Source: Wikipedia Commons )

In fact, there aren’t too many of these pictographs.

Around 90% of the kanji in fact come from six other categories, in which several basic elements (called ‘radicals') are combined to form new concepts.

For example:

人 (‘man' as a radical)   +   木 (‘tree')    =  休 (‘to rest')

These are known as 形声文字 keisei moji or ‘radical-phonetic compounds'.

You can think of these characters as being made up of two parts:

• A radical that tells you what category of word it is: animals, plants, metals, etc.)
• A second component that completes the character and give it its pronunciation (a sort of Japanese approximation from Chinese).

So that’s the story behind the kanji , but what are they used for in Japanese writing?

Typically, they are used to represent concrete concepts.

When you look at a piece of Japanese writing, you’ll see kanji being used for nouns, and in the stem of verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Here are some of them from our sample text at the start of the article:

日本人     Japanese people 多国籍料理     multinational cuisine 東南     Southeast

Now, here’s the big question!

Once you’ve learnt to read or write a kanji , how do you pronounce it?

If you took the character from the original Chinese, it would usually only have one pronunciation.

However, by the time these characters leave China and reach Japan, they usually have two or sometimes even more pronunciations.

How or why does this happen?

Let's look at an example.

To say ‘mountain', the Chinese use the pictograph 山 which depicts a mountain with three peaks. The pronunciation of this character in Chinese is sh ā n (in the first tone).

Now, in Japanese the word for ‘mountain' is ‘yama'.

So in this case, the Japanese decided to borrow the character山from Chinese, but to pronounce it differently: yama .

However, this isn’t the end of the story!

The Japanese did decide to borrow the pronunciation from the original Chinese, but only to use it when that character is used in compound words.

So, in this case, when the character 山 is part of a compound word, it is pronounced as san/zan – clearly an approximation to the original Chinese pronunciation.

Here’s the kanji on its own:

山は…      Yama wa…     The mountain….

And here’s the kanji when it appears in compound words:

火山は…     Ka zan wa     The volcano…

富士山は…     Fuji san wa…     Mount Fuji….

To recap, every kanji has at least two pronunciations.

The first one (the so-called訓読み kun'yomi or ‘meaning reading') has an original Japanese pronunciation, and is used with one kanji on it’s own.

The second one (called音読み  on'yomi or ‘sound-based reading') is used in compound words, and comes from the original Chinese.

Makes sense, right? 😉

In Japan, there’s an official number of kanji that are classified for “daily use” (常用漢字 joy ō kanji ) by the Japanese Ministry of Education – currently 2,136.

(Although remember that the number of actual words that you can form using these characters is much higher.)

So now… if you wanted to actually learn all these kanji , how should you go about it?

To answer this question, Luca’s going to give us an insight into how he did it.  

How I Learnt Kanji

I started to learn kanji more than 10 years ago at a time when you couldn't find all the great resources that are available nowadays. I only had paper kanji dictionary and simple lists from my textbook.

What I did have, however, was the memory of a fantastic teacher.

I studied Chinese for two years in college, and this teacher taught us characters in two helpful ways:

• He would analyse them in terms of their radicals and other components
• He kept us motivated and interested in the process by using fascinating stories based on etymology (the origin of the characters)

Once I’d learnt to recognise the 214 radicals which make up all characters – the building blocks of Chinese characters – it was then much easier to go on and learn the characters and the words themselves.

It’s back to the earlier analogy of dividing the word ‘telephone' into tele and phone .

But here’s the thing – knowing the characters alone isn’t enough. There are too many, and they’re all very similar to one another.

If you want to get really good at the language, and really know how to read and how to write in Japanese, you need a higher-order strategy.

The number one strategy that I used to reach a near-native ability in reading and writing in Japanese was to learn the kanji within the context of dialogues or other texts .

I never studied them as individual characters or words.

Now, I could give you a few dozen ninja tricks for how to learn Japanese kanji. B ut the one secret that blows everything else out of the water and guarantees real success in the long-term, is extensive reading and massive exposure.

This is the foundation of the StoryLearning® method , where you immerse yourself in language through story.

In the meantime, there are a lot of resources both online and offline to learn kanji , each of which is based on a particular method or approach (from flashcards to mnemonic and so on).

The decision of which approach to use can be made easier by understanding the way you learn best.

Do you have a photographic memory or prefer working with images? Do you prefer to listen to audio? Or perhaps you prefer to write things by hands?

You can and should try more than one method, in order to figure out which works best for you.

( Note : You should get a copy of this excellent guide by John Fotheringham, which has all the resources you’ll ever need to learn kanji )

Summary Of How To Write In Japanese

So you’ve made it to the end!

See – I told you it wasn’t that bad! Let’s recap what we’ve covered.

Ordinary written Japanese employs a mixture of three scripts:

• Kanji, or Chinese characters, of which there are officially 2,136 in daily use (more in practice)
• 2 syllabic alphabets called hiragana and katakana, containing 42 symbols each

In special cases, such as children’s books or simplified materials for language learners, you might find everything written using only hiragana or katakana .

But apart from those materials, everything in Japanese is written by employing the three scripts together. And it’s the kanji which represent the cultural and linguistic challenge in the Japanese language.

If you want to become proficient in Japanese you have to learn all three!

Although it seems like a daunting task, remember that there are many people before you who have found themselves right at the beginning of their journey in learning Japanese.

And every journey begins with a single step.

So what are you waiting for?

The best place to start is to enrol in  Japanese Uncovered . The course includes a series of lessons that teach you hiragana, katakana and kanji. It also includes an exciting Japanese story which comes in different formats (romaji, hiragana, kana and kanji) so you can practice reading Japanese, no matter what level you're at right now.

– – –

It’s been a pleasure for me to work on this article with Luca Toma, and I’ve learnt a lot in the process.

Now he didn’t ask me to write this, but if you’re serious about learning Japanese, you should consider hiring Luca as a coach. The reasons are many, and you can find out more on his website: JapaneseCoaching.it

Do you know anyone learning Japanese? Why not send them this article, or click here to send a tweet .

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Short essay: Thoughts on learning to speak and write in a foreign language… naturally

When learning a foreign language, I think we all tend to go through stages. First, we may have a mild (or major) interest in the culture of a foreign country, and begin to pick up a few words here or there in that country’s native language. In the case of Japanese, it might be a few phrases from subtitled Anime where it’s easy to pick words that frequently appear. I still vividly remember learning one of my first Japanese expressions from a good friend in high school: “ Hajimemashite, douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu “.

The next stage involves more formal learning by taking one or more classes or devoting some of your spare time to properly learn the basics of the language, especially grammar, pronunciation, and alphabet(s). For many people, memorizing isn’t that challenging (given the time and effort), but the tricky part here is to start learning the ins and outs of that language’s grammar, including certain tendencies that are different from one’s native language, like how in Japanese subjects are often omitted.

After a few years of extensive study, most people can probably manage to figure out the meaning of text in that language, assuming they have access to a dictionary. Learning to understand spoken language can be much tricker due to differences individual speech (in Japanese there are significant differences across genders and ages) and also due to regional accents/dialects. But, even for listening, I think practice really does make perfect, at least in the sense that you “understand enough” to either enjoy the content in that language, or learn something from it. For reading and listening, which I’ll call passive tasks, there is typically so much context to go by that you can just guess things as you go–essentially every sentence becomes a mini puzzle. If you are living your day-to-day life in that language, any misunderstandings you have about the meaning of a certain expression will probably get ironed out by time, as you undertake a gradual process of trial and error.

Now we come to the real challenge: the  active  tasks of writing and speaking in a foreign language. It depends on the person, but for me I feel speaking is generally the harder of these two. One reason is that you typically have to respond in real time, and the other is the need to be concerned about pronunciation, not only of individual words but also of phrases, since in Japanese the intonation of words can influence words later in the sentence. You also have to worry about things like  aizuchi (words used to show you are listening, like “ sou desu ka “) and words that show you are thinking (like “ etto… ” which is a little similar to the English “umm…”). You also have to inflect your speech to express your emotions. Finally, you need a conversation partner in order to make any progress. This condition alone means that self-taught students who don’t live in a country which speaks that language will have a very hard time of getting to an advanced level in their speech.

There are some advantages to learning to speak as compared to learning to write. For example, when speaking there is a quick feedback cycle between expressing something and getting a response. Although it’s usually pretty hard to find someone to correct your mistakes during a conversation (except maybe a private tutor who is paid for that), there is often an opportunity to reuse an expression you just heard, which allows you to cement it in your memory for more easy recall later.

Learning to write, on the other hand, lacks many of the difficult aspects of learning to speak, like pronunciation and a need to respond in real time. For those doing self-study, especially those living outside of Japan, it should be easier to pick up writing (and by writing, I am mostly referring to inputting with a keyboard, though writing by hand is also included) because there is nearly an infinite set of resources available in the form of websites and in many books which can be pretty easily acquired from online retailers. One can also write all day long, in the form of a blog or essay, without needing anyone available at that moment (unlike speaking which usually requires a partner). So, in a certain sense, you can study writing as much as your free time allows.

However, herein lies one of the challenges of learning to write natively. Just as with speech, it is pretty difficult to find someone to correct your mistakes on somewhere like a daily blog. The problem comes when you know just enough grammar and vocabulary to be dangerous, meaning that you can just start writing nearly anything that comes to mind, using only a dictionary and knowledge of grammar rules. However, if you are not careful you might end with extremely unnatural prose that sounds like something that came out of a computer translator. Ok, maybe not that horrific, but you get the point.

Getting to the final stage, where you can write like a native, such that none of your language has the scent of your native language, is quite a challenge, and I feel many people are never able to achieve this goal. I myself still have a long way to come, though I tell myself this is because I have placed an emphasis on passive Japanese (i.e. reading and listening) over active for many of my years of study.

Completely natural writing (as well as speech) requires not just learning a complete set of grammar rules to build sentences with, but also a large set of exceptions , without necessarily any logic behind them. To put it another way–how often have you read the text written by a non-native speaker of your native tongue and said to yourself “this just doesn’t feel right”. It isn’t technically grammatically incorrect, and there is no official rule that has been broken. Some of this can be explained by the linguistic phenomenon called “collocation”  which describes how certain groups of words are used more commonly together than others.

To help get your writing to sound more natural, I suggest you try and create a tight feedback loop which mimics a conversation. This means that you should favor writing emails (either to a friend or coworker) over writing a blog. When writing emails, try to force yourself to reuse words and expressions used by the person you are communicating with (hopefully a native speaker). Also, if you say something unnatural it’s more likely to be pointed out as opposed to a blog where mistakes can sit for years on a webpage without anyone pointing them out. Text chat provides an even shorter feedback loop (nearly immediate), though you should keep in mind the expressions you learn from chatting with someone may not be applicable to an email or other more formal type of writing (think of the abbreviation “l8r” used in English chat, which would be strange to use in a business email).

If you really want to keep a blog in a foreign language, I recommend reading other blogs written by native speakers immediately before and after you make a post, and be sure to do a thorough proofread of your text before posting it, looking for unnatural or incorrect parts. When I have written a blog in the past in Japanese, I frequently googled combinations of words to verify if they were common before using them. This helped me write much more natural sentences, but it had the disadvantage of being quite tedious and taking out some of the fun out of blog writing.

Another option when you are reading is to take notes whenever you come across an expression that seems useful, and force yourself to use it in the next day or so in your own writing. This can be an effective way of increasing your vocabulary, though it takes a good amount of persistence and willpower to not get lazy and quit after a few days.  If you have the time you can write a few example sentences on the spot, though that can interrupt your reading practice.

One other way to help raise your writing and speech to native level is to find one or more role models–native speakers who you can respect and pick up phrases from. I think to a certain extent this automatically happens when speaking, especially when we make friends and talk to them on a frequent basis, but for writing I feel it requires a bit more conscious effort to find and leverage such linguistic role models.

Once in a while, ask a native speaker to give you detailed criticism of your writing so you can have a sanity check to see how close to native level you are. Doing this for everything you write would be way too tedious (for both you and the other person), though there are some tools out there like Lang 8 which can help make this process more efficient (disclaimer: I have not actually used this site but think it is worth experimenting with). Writing in a foreign language for weeks, months, or longer, without having someone double check your work carries the risk of developing certain bad habits that will be hard to break later.

Another thing I am considering getting into is writing fiction short stories in Japanese. I feel this is one of the hardest domains because much of the internet doesn’t contain full texts of proper ‘literature’, so the technique of google for natural sentences isn’t nearly as useful. Also, it is harder to find someone to correct your language since you’ll need a person that is pretty well-read. Finally, the lexicon of words used in literature is much higher than in normal everyday conversation, emails, or chat. The best thing you can do is just read as much as you can in that language, ideally from published authors, and try to remember as much as you can as you read.

At the end of the day, learning to write and speak naturally in a foreign language is essentially about learning to imitate others in an efficient way, and match up thoughts and feelings with the appropriate words. I feel the number one enemy is not the large number of words nor the foreign concepts you need to master, but complacency . The danger is when we realize we’ve reached the level where native speakers actually understand what we are saying (or at least seem to), and we slack off, telling ourselves that we’ve made it. Learning to speak and write such that we can communicate basic ideas is very different from doing so with native-like expressions, and making sure we are aware of the massive gulf between these two things is one of the steps to true fluency.

This reminds me of a book I once read about Zen meditation many years ago, “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” . The central theme of this book was that there is something special about people when they start to learn something new: they look at everything with an unbiased, fresh mind, devoid of expectations and thoughts of “I should be pretty good at this since I have this much experience”. Though the book was focused on meditation, I think applying the concept of  Beginners  Mind to our language studies may have a surprisingly large impact, especially for those that have been studying a few years or longer.

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7 thoughts on “ Short essay: Thoughts on learning to speak and write in a foreign language… naturally ”

HiNative and Lang-8 were designed just for that purpose: to have natives correct your writing. HiNative has a spoken aspect too, and while it is shorter, that makes it easier for everyone. Trying to learn from longer clips is exhausting.

Thanks for letting me know about HiNative, it looks interesting! Maybe I’ll check it out sometime.

Your assessment of higher level language learning is very true. Mimicking native patterns and habits is key to improving your ability. Writing and speaking are also very different, in all languages. In most cases your writing is not going to exactly replicate the way you would speak it, and sometimes writing like you would speak comes out quite strange. As with learning the language in the first place, I think practice, as you suggest, is key. It’s really nice that there are websites to help with your writing, because it can be hard even to get friends to correct your writing, especially if they don’t want to be harsh on you.

Thanks for the comment, glad you agree with that I said (:

Totally agree with what you said. When I read your entry, nuances like 分かる being preferred over 知る came to mind. I have used Lang-8 for years, and I can vouch that it is a very good tool for studying Japanese, if one is hardworking. Since others correct one’s entries, one should correct other people’s entries for a balanced exchange, so it does become time-consuming. However, it is really good because one gets to see a variety of expressions recommended by a variety of people. While this is good for N3-ish learners and above, lower level learners might find it confusing to have so many different options to choose from and may require a non-native to explain the difference to them. But all in all, I definitely recommend Lang-8 🙂

Thanks for the response. Good to know you have gotten so much use out of Lang-8.

Actually I’ve created my own program to help everyone practice writing in Japanese, maybe you’d get some use out of that as well?

If you are interested, check this out:

http://selftaughtjapanese.com/japanese-writing-lab-improve-your-writing-skills/

Hello locksleyu 🙂

Thank you for your recommendation. I have just slaved over a script for a Japanese speech contest, so I’ll take a break from writing for a bit ^^;; (bit.ly/JapSpeech) if you’re interested 🙂

I’ll join the writing lab when I feel up to it 😀

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Re: SHORT Japanese essay

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Japanese language: an overview, geography and its place in world languages.

Japanese is spoken by some 125 million people in Japan and in pockets outside of Japan, in such places as Hawaii and Brazil where Japanese immigrants settled around the turn of the twentieth century. Speakers of Japanese are also scattered around in Taiwan and Korea where Japanese was the official language during the Japanese colonial period (Taiwan 1895-1945; Korea 1910-1945), although this number is decreasing and the speakers aging. With this many speakers, Japanese is ranked as ninth in the world in terms of number of speakers. A 2006 MLA statistics showed that more than 66,000 study Japanese at the college level and more than 500,000 at the secondary level in the United States.

According to one kind of language classification, Japanese is considered to be an agglutinating language. This means that a word may consist of several meaningful elements chained together. For example, the word (or a 'sentence'?) tataseraretakunakatta single-handedly takes care of the meaning "he did not want to be made to stand." Although the definition of what constitutes a word is by no means indisputable, it is assumed, for the purpose of this essay, that one can distinguish several meaningful elements in this word, i.e., tat- is the verb 'stand', -as- is a causative marker, -erare- marks passive, -taku marks desire, naka- is a negative marker, -tta- indicates completed action. In contrast, languages like Spanish or French are called inflectional languages. For instance, the o ending in the Spanish verb ending -o in vivo, 'I live', contains a host of different types of information: that the verb is first person singular, present tense, indicative mood, etc. Chinese and, to a lesser degree, English belong to yet another language group, called the analytic languages, in which fusion of the inflective or agglutinative sort occurs to much less extent. Ainu, a language spoken in Japan, and now practically extinct, belongs to a fourth language group, called the polysynthetic languages.

There are other ways of classifying languages. If one uses as a criterion the method by which major constituents (such as subject nominal 'S', object nominal 'O', and verb complex 'V') are ordered in canonical sentences, then Japanese is a verb-final language (SOV language, or more generally, XV language) and English is a SVO language. Korean is also XV and Chinese SVO. Among world languages, Japanese and Korean belong to the most common SOV/(XV) type.

Genetic Affiliation of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese

Scholars have long been interested in the question of if and how Japanese is genetically related to other languages in areas that surround the Japanese islands. To solve this question, historical linguists have developed a scientific method of systematic cross-language comparison called the comparative method. Using this method, they have compared language pairs such as French and Spanish, English and Dutch, etc., and have observed systematic and consistent sound changes and little semantic shifts, which allowed them to conclude that these languages are genetically related. In the case of Japanese, scholars have not succeeded in finding a common ancestral language or a sister language, i.e. a language that shares the same ancestral language. Some have speculated that Japanese is related to Tamil, a Dravidian language spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, to Korean, or to languages in Southeast Asia, but none of these theories has passed the scrutiny of historical linguists.

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Japanese Short Stories & Essays For language learners Kindle Edition

• Reading age 3 - 18 years
• Print length 198 pages
• Language English
• Publication date July 22, 2021
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09B3L4VM5
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 22, 2021
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Noboru akuzawa.

Noboru Akuzawa was born in Japan in 1973. He studied at the University of Birmingham in the UK as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar and got a master degree. He is a public relations specialist in story-branding, media relations, and digital communications. On the other hand, he started teaching Japanese through the internet in 2016. He offers an original Japanese language learning method with a combination of the Sentence Pattern Method and the Read Aloud Method.

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Your Step-by-Step Jikoshoukai Guide Learn the basics, practice, and create an advanced Japanese self-introduction

October 11, 2016 • words written by Mami Suzuki and Michael Richey • Art by Aya Francisco

Viewing under The Tofugu JET Program Guide

When you start learning Japanese or are visiting Japan for the first time , there are few words to learn right away:

Once you've mastered those three, you need to learn your jikoshoukai.

Jikoshoukai 自己紹介 （ じこしょうかい ） is the Japanese word for "self-introduction." In theory, this is similar to how you would introduce yourself in your own culture. Say hello, say your name, tell a little about yourself. But in practice, there are cultural differences and set procedures you should stick to. You only get one first impression, so it's important to learn how to do it right.

We'll start by teaching you the basic Japanese self-introduction, then cultural subtleties, and finally a ton of extra grammar and vocabulary you can use to talk about yourself with your new Japanese friends.

Jikoshoukai Vocabulary

Writing your jikoshoukai, 1. first name and family name, 2. occupation, 3. don't talk about yourself too much, 4. bowing vs. handshake, 5. holding your hands behind your back, 6. don't bow while talking, business cards, "nice to meet you", "please be kind to me", where you are from, your school, where you live, hobbies and proficiencies, plans for the future, only the beginning, how to jikoshoukai.

Going to Japan, but don't know Japanese? Don't worry. You can jikoshoukai. The Japanese self-intro has a standard order and set phrases, so even beginners can meet and greet in Japanese.

• How do you do?

The set phrase hajimemashite 初めまして （ はじ　　　　 ） either comes from the verb hajimeru 始める （ はじ　　 ） , which means "to start," or it's a shortened form of 初めて （ はじ　　 ） お 目 （ め ） にかかりまして. Though etymologists aren't sure of the word's true origin, hajimemashite implies beginning or doing something for the first time . Most people think of it as saying "How do you do?" or "Nice to meet you."

• 私 （ わたし ） は [name] と 申します （ もう　　　 ） 。
• My name is [name].

The breakdown of this sentence is easier than it looks. It has three parts:

• 私 （ わたし ） は - The first word 私 means "I" or "me." It's followed by the particle は which indicates the topic of the sentence. In this case, 私 is the topic.
• [name] - Your name.
• と 申します （ もう　　　 ） - One meaning of the verb 申す is "to be called." It's paired with the particle と and conjugated to 申します。 This is a polite phrase, so it's safe to use in almost any situation.

When you put them all together, you get something along the lines of "I am called [name]" or "My name is [name]."

• よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） します。
• Please be kind to me.

The final piece of the puzzle is よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） します. It doesn't translate well to English, which is why we wrote a whole article about it . In a self-intro situation, it means something like "Please be kind to me." It's often translated as "Nice to meet you." This isn't technically correct, though it carries a similar feeling.

Now that you've got the basic building blocks down, it's time to put it together. At its simplest, the jikoshoukai sequence is:

• はじめまして。 私 （ わたし ） は (name) と 申 （ もう ） します。よろしくお 願 （ ねが ） いします。
• How do you do? My name is (name). Please be kind to me.

See? Not so hard. When you're getting ready to meet Japanese people for the first time, write this out and practice until it flows. If you're a beginner at Japanese , you don't need any more than this.

Jikoshoukai Etiquette

It's great to know the words to say when introducing yourself in Japanese, but how you say those words will make or break your jikoshoukai.

There are cultural differences to be aware of. They're subtle, so if you miss them it probably won't be counted against you. But paying attention to details like these can give you an extra social edge when you first meet a new Japanese friend.

In English, people usually introduce themselves by their first names or full names. When you give your full name, the first name comes first and the family name afterward.

In Japanese, people usually introduce themselves by their family names or full names. When they introduce their full name, the family name comes first and the first name comes second.

Revealing one or two of your strengths is fine, but listing all your amazing abilities will annoy others and make you seem over-confident.

In English, when you asked what you do for work, you give a brief summary of your job, or the name of your profession.

In Japan, it's common to answer only, " 会社員 （ かいしゃいん ） です。" (I'm an office worker./I work for a company./I'm a salaryman.)

However, if you introduce yourself to someone in a business setting, mention your company in your self-intro. For example:

• Tofuguのコウイチと 申します （ もう　　　 ） 。
• I'm Koichi from Tofugu.

This concept goes along with our next point…

Japanese people sometimes say lightly self-deprecating things as a form of humility, but it's usually followed by something positive (or the positivity is implied). For example:

• 至らない点が多いかもしれませんが、頑張りますので、よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） します
• I might have many flaws, but I'll do my best so please be kind to me.

You don't have to say anything like this (in fact, we advise you don't), but the point is this: Japanese people usually keep their strengths on the down-low.

So try not to show off too much. Revealing one or two of your strengths is fine, but listing all your amazing abilities will annoy others and make you seem over-confident.

In the West, if you're meeting someone one-on-one, you shake hands.

In Japan, don't move in for the handshake, especially if your status is the same or lower than the person you're meeting. In Japan, handshakes are for equals, so if you try to shake hands with the Emperor, it would be considered rude. Bow instead, and do so at the beginning and end of your jikoshoukai.

In Japan, holding your hands behind your back signals importance, so it may make you look full of yourself. Put your hands in front of you (the left hand on top of the right), or put your hands beside you.

This is a no-no from our Japanese bowing guide . Do your bowing after giving your self-introduction. Make sure to finish saying "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" and then bow.

Business cards in Japan are called meishi 名刺 （ めいし ） , and are an important part of Japanese culture. Even outside of the business world, Japanese people sometimes have personal meishi made (meishi means "name card" after all).

We covered meishi etiquette in our article about Japanese work customs , but here are the rules again in a jikoshoukai context.

Orient your card toward the recipient. Give and receive meishi with two hands.

Put meishi in a carrying case: You can buy business card carrying cases online or at any department store in Japan. If you don't have a case, you can carefully put the meishi in your purse or wallet after you've received it. Just don't put it in your pocket.

Use two hands: Orient your card toward the recipient when presenting. Hold the top edge with both hands. When they offer their card, accept it with two hands. Try not to cover any words with your fingers either. Some Japanese people are taught that a meishi is the "face" of the person giving it, so you don't want to cover theirs or your own.

When you and your new friend offer each other meishi at the same time: Present your card with your right hand, while simultaneously receiving theirs with your left.

Read meishi you receive: Read the person's name and title on the card before you put it away. Make sure to show interest in what they do. Act at least a little bit impressed with their job title.

When exchanging meishi in a group, give to the most senior person first: Start by giving your business card to the shachou, then fukushachou, and so on down the chain of command .

Treat meishi with respect: Use common sense and treat meishi like you would a gift. Don't toss or write on them.

Expanding the Basic Jikoshoukai

Maybe you've been doing your Japanese self-intro for years, repeating the same three set phrases over and over. Maybe you've read this guide before and have the basics down pat. You're ready to level up!

Below are example sentences you can mix into your standard jikoshoukai to give it more flavor, and make your self-intro a memorable one.

Earlier we learned how to use はじめまして (nice to meet you, how do you do). Here's a few ways to add to this set phrase.

• こんにちは。はじめまして。
• Hello. Nice to meet you.
• みなさん、はじめまして。
• Nice to meet you, everyone.
• みなさん、こんにちは。はじめまして。
• Hello everyone. Nice to meet you.

For a formal situation, you should say both your first and last names. In a casual situation, it's common to say only your family name for Japanese people.

If you're an English teacher on something like the JET Program , your school might want you to give your first name when you introduce yourself to the students. Ask your supervisor what's appropriate for the situation.

Below are several ways to introduce your name, organized by politeness in ascending order.

• 私 （ わたし ） の 名前 （ なまえ ） はマイケルですが、みんなにはマイクって 呼ばれて （ よ　　　 ） います。
• My name is Michael, but most people call me Mike.
• I'm Michael.

Very Formal:

• マイケルと 申します （ もう　　　 ） 。

Very Formal/Business:

• Tofuguのマイケルと 申します （ もう　　　 ） 。
• I'm Michael from Tofugu.

When you end your jikoshoukai, you'll use a phrase that means "Please be kind to me" or "Remember me favorably." But once you've got a handle on the standard " yoroshiku onegaishimasu ," you can move on to more casual or more formal variations. Below we've organized them by politeness level in ascending order.

Polite/Business:

• どうぞ、よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） します。
• よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） 致します （ いた　　　 ） 。

Very Polite/Business:

• どうぞ、よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） 致します （ いた　　　 ） 。

Formal/Business:

• よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） 申し上げます （ もう　あ　　　 ） 。
• どうぞ、よろしくお 願い （ ねが　 ） 申し上げます （ もう　あ　　　 ） 。

Custom Jikoshoukai Modification

From here we get into the fun stuff. After expanding on the initial three pieces of the Japanese self-introduction, you can start adding information about yourself, short sentences that explain where you're from, what you like to do, and so on.

These jikoshoukai modifications will help people get to know you faster when you first introduce yourself. This is especially important as you start to make more Japanese friends, go on dates, or have job interviews.

Telling where you're from is always a good addition to a self-intro. Even if you don't use it during the initial jikoshoukai, your new Japanese friend will probably ask you anyway, so memorizing a few of these phrases is extra useful.

Two quick vocabulary usage notes: First, the word shusshin 出身 （ しゅっしん ） mean's "person's origin," and refers more to the place you were born or grew up than where you currently live. It's often used for specific places like a city, state, or prefecture, rather than a country. For example, Mami was born in Osaka, and now lives in Canada. But she spent most of her life in Nara, so she says " 奈良県 （ ならけん ） の 出身 （ しゅっしん ） です。" or " 出身 （ しゅっしん ） は 奈良県 （ ならけん ） です。"

Second, the verb mairu 参る （ まいる ） is a more humble form of kuru 来る （ く　 ） or iku 行く （ い　 ） . So when 参る （ まい　 ） is used to talk about where you came from in "アメリカから 参りました （ まい　　　 ） ," it's much more humble, so use it in appropriate situations.

• アメリカの 出身 （ しゅっしん ） です。
• I'm from America.
• アメリカから 来ました （ き　　　 ） 。
• アメリカから 参りました （ まい　　　　 ） 。
• オレゴン 州 （ しゅう ） のポートランドから 来ました （ き　　　 ） 。 生まれ （ う　　 ） も 育ち （ そだ　 ） もポートランドです。
• I'm from Portland, Oregon. Born and raised.
• 生まれ （ う　　 ） は 大阪 （ おおさか ） ですが、 育ち （ そだ　 ） は 東京 （ とうきょう ） です。
• I was born in Osaka, but grew up in Tokyo.
• 育ち （ そだ　 ） はニューヨークです。
• I grew up in New York.
• 田舎 （ いなか ） で 育ちました （ そだ　　　　 ） 。
• I grew up in the countryside.
• 生まれ （ う　　 ） は 東京 （ とうきょう ） ですが、 十歳 （ じゅうさい ） の 時 （ とき ） に 大阪 （ おおさか ） に 引っ越しました （ ひ　こ　　　　 ） 。そして、 大学 （ だいがく ） に 入る （ はい　 ） 時 （ とき ） に、 名古屋 （ なごや ） に 引っ越して （ ひ　こ　　 ） 来ました （ き　　　 ） 。
• I was born in Tokyo, but moved to Osaka when I was ten, and lived there until I entered university, which is when I came to Nagoya.
• 小さい （ ちい　　 ） 時 （ とき ） 、 家族 （ かぞく ） が 何度も （ なんど　 ） 引っ越した （ ひ　こ　　 ） ので、 私 （ わたし ） には 育った （ そだ　　 ） 場所 （ ばしょ ） というのはないんです。
• My family moved a lot when I was little, so I'm not really from anywhere.

School, from elementary up through university , is a big part of Japanese life. Be prepared to have people ask alma mater and what you studied. Or cut them off at the pass by including the information in your jikoshoukai.

• Ⓐ 大学 （ だいがく ） Ⓑ 学部 （ がくぶ ） Ⓒ 科 （ か ） の 出身 （ しゅっしん ） です。
• I graduated from the Ⓒ department of the faculty of Ⓑ of Ⓐ University.
• Ⓐ 大学 （ だいがく ） Ⓑ 学部 （ がくぶ ） Ⓒ 科 （ か ） の 学生 （ がくせい ） です。
• I'm a student of the Ⓒ department of the faculty of Ⓑ of Ⓐ University.
• Ⓐ 大学 （ だいがく ） Ⓑ 学部 （ がくぶ ） Ⓒ 科 （ か ） の 二年生 （ にねんせい ） です。
• I'm a second year student of the Ⓒ department of the faculty of Ⓑ of Ⓐ University.
• オレゴン 大学 （ だいがく ） で、 二年間 （ にねんかん ） 東 （ ひがし ） アジアの 歴史 （ れきし ） を 専攻 （ せんこう ） していました。
• I studied East Asian history at Oregon university for two years.

Occupation is a common conversation topic when meeting someone new. If you're doing business in Japan (or want to), you'd better learn at least one of these phrases.

A quick grammar usage note: some of these jikoshoukai example sentences use the continuous state conjugation of suru する （ ） which is shiteimasu しています （ ） . If you want to get extra polite with any of these sentences, swap out しています with shiteorimasu しております （ ） . One easy switch and you're ready to tell CEOs and presidents about your work situation.

• Tofuguで 編集長 （ へんしゅうちょう ） を しています 。
• I'm the chief editor of Tofugu.
• トヨタで 営業 （ えいぎょう ） を 担当 （ たんとう ） しています 。
• I'm working in sales at Toyota.
• 会計課 （ かいけいか ） に 配属 （ はいぞく ） になりました、 佐藤 （ さとう ） です。
• I'm Satou , assigned to the accounts department.
• 私 （ わたし ） は 会社員 （ かいしゃいん ） です。
• I'm an office worker.
• 私 （ わたし ） は 英語 （ えいご ） の 教師 （ きょうし ） です。
• I'm an English teacher.
• 私 （ わたし ） は 英語 （ えいご ） を 教えています （ おし　　　　　 ） 。
• I teach English.
• 私 （ わたし ） はこの 学校 （ がっこう ） で 英語 （ えいご ） を 教えます （ おし　　　 ） 。
• I'm going to teach English at this school.
• 私 （ わたし ） は 東 （ ひがし ） フグ 小学校 （ しょうがっこう ） で 働いて （ はたら　　 ） います。
• I'm working at East Fugu Elementary School.
• 私 （ わたし ） は 東 （ ひがし ） フグ 小学校 （ しょうがっこう ） に 勤めて （ つと　　 ） います。
• I'm working for East Fugu Elementary School.

"You live around here?" is a common question no matter the culture. Be ready to answer questions about your living situation with these sentences.

• 東京 （ とうきょう ） に 住んで （ す　　 ） います。
• I live in Tokyo.
• 東京 （ とうきょう ） 駅 （ えき ） の 近く （ ちか　 ） に 住んで （ す　　 ） います。
• I live near Tokyo station.
• 東京 （ とうきょう ） 駅 （ えき ） の 近く （ ちか　 ） のマンションに 住んで （ す　　 ） います。
• I live in an apartment near Tokyo station.

Hobbies are super important part of life in Japan. Japanese junior high and high school students take school club activities seriously ( sometimes more than academics ) and this passion often continues into adult life. If you have a hobby, that is your "thing." Even if you don't think of your interests as "hobbies," describe them as such anyway. It will help people understand you better . Alternatively, you can say what you like and don't like.

• 趣味 （ しゅみ ） は[____]です。
• My hobby is [____].
• 趣味 （ しゅみ ） は[____]することです。
• My hobby is to do [____]
• [____]が 趣味 （ しゅみ ） です。
• [____]することが 趣味 （ しゅみ ） です。
• 私 （ わたし ） は[____]が 好き （ す　 ） です。
• I like [____]
• [____]も 好き （ す　 ） です。
• I also like [____]
• [____]は 好き （ す　 ） ではありません。
• I don't like [____]
• 私 （ わたし ） は[____]することが 好き （ す　 ） です。
• I like to do [____]
• 私 （ わたし ） は[____]が 得意 （ とくい ） です。
• I'm good at [____].
• 私 （ わたし ） は[____]することが 得意 （ とくい ） です。
• I'm good at doing [____].
• 私 （ わたし ） は[____]が 苦手 （ にがて ） です。
• I'm not good at/I don't like [____](noun)
• 私 （ わたし ） は[____]することが 苦手 （ にがて ） です。
• I'm not good at doing [____].

What do you want to be when you grow up? What new skills are you trying to develop? What are you going to eat for lunch tomorrow? Answer these questions and more with the example sentences below.

Grammar usage note: the noun tsumori つもり （ ） is used to tell what you plan to do. It's most commonly used in situations where you've already made up your mind. It's definite. Don't use it for instances where you're kind of maybe thinking about something, but you're not sure yet.

• [____]ようと 考えて （ かんが　　 ） います。
• I'm thinking about doing [____].
• [____]したいと 思って （ おも　　 ） います。
• I'd like to do [____].
• [____]つもりです。
• 私 （ わたし ） の 目標 （ もくひょう ） は[____]です。
• My object is [____].
• [____]に 挑戦 （ ちょうせん ） したいと 思って （ おも　　 ） います。
• I'd like to challenge [____].

Now you know what it takes to put together a stellar jikoshoukai in Japanese. Put the pieces together, mind the cultural differences, and practice till its second nature.

With a solid self-intro on your side, you're poised to start your relationships right. Just don't forget your business cards.

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Art of Asia

Course: art of asia   >   unit 4, introduction to japan.

• Buddhism in Japan
• Zen Buddhism
• A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Jomon to Heian periods
• A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Kamakura to Azuchi-Momoyama periods
• A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Edo period
• A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Meiji to Reiwa periods
• Japanese art: the formats of two-dimensional works

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147 Japanese Culture Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Looking for interesting topics on Japan? Find them here! This list contains plenty of Japanese culture topics relating to the country’s traditions, art, and social phenomena. Check them out!

🔝 Top 10 Japanese Culture Topics to Write About

🔎 culture-related japan research topics, ✅ japanese topics for presentations, 🏆 best japanese culture topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good japanese culture essay topics, 💡 interesting japanese culture topics to write about, 📌 simple & easy japanese culture essay titles, ❓ research questions about japanese culture.

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Japanese Short Stories: 17 Captivating Stories and Collections To Read in 2024

Do you sometimes find yourself daydreaming about visiting Japan?

I know I do, but since travel isn’t always possible, watching Japanese films, and especially reading Japanese books is the next best thing.

So maybe it’s time to swap your usual books for some authentic Japanese short stories.

Here are 17 well-known Japanese short stories (and short story collections) to add some fun to your bookshelf!

1. “After the Quake” by Haruki Murakami

2. “teach us to outgrow our madness” by kenzaburō ōe, 3. “japanese tales of mystery and imagination” by edogawa ranpo, 4. “a treasury of japanese folktales” by yuri yasuda, 5. “buying mittens” by nankichi niimi, 6. “koizumi yakumo complete works” by koizumi yakumo, 7. “ichiyo higuchi complete works” by ichiyo higuchi, 8. “shinichi hoshi short short selection” by shinichi hoshi, 9. “palm-of-the-hand stories” by yasunari kawabata, 10. “lizard” by banana yoshimoto, 11. “blind willow, sleeping woman” by haruki murakami, 12. “the elephant vanishes” by haruki murakami, 13. “the cat that lived a million times” by yoko sano, 14. “breaking into japanese literature” translated by giles murray, 15. “exploring japanese literature” translated by giles murray, 16. “short stories in japanese” translated by michael emmerich, 17. “read real japanese fiction” translated by michael emmerich, bonus resources: online databases, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Japanese title: 地震後

Murakami is undoubtedly Japan’s most famous contemporary writer. He has sold millions of copies of his work, which has been translated into 50 languages. So what if you read it in the original Japanese?

This collection of short stories is focused on the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It contains six short stories centered around people who, while not directly affected by the physical devastation of the quake, find their lives forever changed in its aftermath.

One of the most well known stories from this book is “All God’s Children Can Dance,” which focuses on a young man named Yoshiya who follows a man he thinks may be his father to a baseball field . The man disappears, but Yoshiya still manages to have a joyous epiphany.

If you’re interested in an English language film version of this story, check out the trailer here.

The works in this collection display Kenzaburō Ōe’s distinctly Japanese vision. As some background, the author was just ten when he first saw American military Jeeps arrive into the mountain village where he lived, and his literary work deals with the tension and ambiguity forged by this first otherworldly encounter at the end of World War II.

The earliest story included here, “Prize Stock,” reveals the strange relationship between a Japanese boy and a captured black American pilot in a Japanese village. 

The collection also includes the short story, “Aghwee the Sky Monster,” an enchanting tale about a young man suffering from blindness caused by being attacked by a gang of children. As he deals with the trauma, he starts his first job, working for a rich banker’s son, who is also haunted by something: the ghost of a baby.

Japanese title: 日本昔話の宝庫

Japan’s premiere mystery writer, Edogawa Ranpo, knows how to thrill and make the hairs on your arm stand on end. This collection, an homage to Ranpo’s literary hero Edgar Allan Poe, features blood curdling, bizarre, fantastic, and just plain scary stories that will be a pleasure to read for horror fans.

One of the most well known of the collection, the short story “The Human Chair” tells the tale of a writer who sits down to read her fan letters one afternoon. What she finds is a detailed confession letter from a man who manages to fool wealthy women into sitting on him, transforming himself into a human chair. Truly creepy stuff!

This beautifully illustrated book features a collection of traditional Japanese folktales and fairy tales. These stories are excellent for language learners to read because they convey traditional culture and values shown through the stories’ morals. The stories are presented in both English and Japanese, so when you’re struggling with a word or concept, you can easily find the translated version.

The book includes the most well known Japanese folktales, stories that have been told to generation after generation of Japanese children.

The book includes legends such as Kintaro, who rides a turtle, a tea kettle that’s actually a badger in disguise, the underwater palace of the Dragon Princess, Peach Boy and more.

Japanese title: ミトンを買う

Nankichi Niimi’s well known story “Buying Mittens” is written for children, which is perfect for beginners who have just started to learn Japanese. The enchanting story has a simple plot: a young fluffy white winter fox goes into town to buy a pair of mittens to keep his paws warm.  

The story starts with the year’s first snowfall, an event that is always celebrated in nature loving Japan. Once the little fox sets off on his journey to town, he has to learn to deal with humans. Through this experience, he learns that people are a lot more complicated than he thought.

Nevertheless, the little fox gets his warm woolen mittens and all is well. This happy ending feels very Japanese—joyous but tinged with nostalgia.

Japanese title: 小泉 八雲 全集

A truly fascinating character, the author of this short story collection wasn’t actually Japanese, but many didn’t know this at the time.

The author was actually born in Greece as Lafcadio Hearn. After traveling all around the world looking for a place that truly suited him, he settled in Japan in 1890, taking the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo.

After studying the language for many years, he became totally fluent in Japanese. With his hard won language abilities, he located and wrote down many famous Japanese stories. His taste tended toward the paranormal, so it’s ghost stories, scary tales, and paranormal legends that he wrote, all now part of his complete works.

This collection is perfect for Japanese learners who have an interest in ghosts and the paranormal.

Japanese title: 樋口一葉 全集

Though she only lived to the age of 24, Ichiyo Higuchi wrote a number of short stories that have become well loved by Japanese people. In fact, she’s so well respected that she appears on Japan’s 5,000 yen bill.

Her stories were written during the Meiji era, so readers should expect to encounter some archaic and old fashioned Japanese, which would certainly be a challenge for beginners or those limited with vocabulary. Because of this, you may want to start with something easier if you’re a beginner.

Nevertheless, this story collection is a good challenge for more advanced readers, or those who want to progress onto reading longer classical Japanese texts in their original forms. The great part about reading historical texts like this is that you’re not only learning the language, you’re learning history, too.

Japanese title: 星新一ショートショートセレクション

As the title hints at, Shinichi Hoshi, a very prolific and well known Japanese author, is famous for stories that are just a few pages long. In fact, he’s written over 1,000 short stories in total.

The author likes to think of these stories like haiku, that distinctly Japanese three-line poetry style. The main difference between haiku and Hoshi’s stories are the themes and topics: science fiction is the focus here, so fans of sci-fi will certainly find some awe inspiring and creative ideas in this collection.

Expect to find robots, demons, and travels to outer space in this far out 20th century collection.

Japanese title: 掌の小説

Best known as the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, Osaka born Yasunari Kawabata is a prolific novelist and short story writer with a proclivity for heartbreaking and poetic imagery.

This collection features 146 of his novellas and short stories, spanning the time frame from the 1920s up to the 1970s. With a style described as “haiku-eque,” Kawabata explores themes of ambiguity, emotional complexity, epiphanies and transformations and of course, nature, a perennial Japanese favorite topic.

This spare, lyrical collection features the well known short story “The Dancing Girl of Izu,” which tells the story of a melancholy student who sees a dancing girl, much improving his spirits.

Japanese title: とかげ

One of Japan’s most famous contemporary female writers, Banana Yoshimoto (which is her pen name; her real name is Mahoko) has been lauded countless times for her portrayal of eccentric, albeit relatable, characters. This popular short story collection, also available in English, can be a good option for comparison when you run into difficulty with understanding a word or sentence.

Yoshimoto has published a mixture of novels, short stories and essays, and is most well known internationally for her debut story, “Kitchen,”  also available in English , for which she won the 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize in 1987.

This collection is good for Japanese learners who want to read a contemporary female point of view.  Since Yoshimoto was born in the 1960s, she’s witnessed the formation of modern Japan in her lifetime.

This second collection by Haruki Murakami is also very well known around the world, because Murakami is Japan’s most famous contemporary writer today.

This collection of 24 related short stories, written between 1980 and 2005, and all originally published in Japanese magazines and collections. The collection enlists the author’s typical magical realism and often bizarre style fused with surreal, dreamlike storytelling.

Murakami writes in the introduction to this collection: “I find writing novels a challenge, writing stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.”

Interestingly, this collection actually originated as an English-only collection before being “reverse-imported” into Japanese.

Japanese title: 象の消滅

One more story collection by Haruki Murakami truly deserves a place on this list. This collection, written between 1980 and 1991, features 17 short stories which were, like “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” also previously published in Japanese magazines and collections.

Thematically, this collection shows another side of Murakami’s literary obsession. Loneliness, loss, destruction, confusion and loneliness are highlighted here, which will give Japanese language learners accurate insight into the melancholy present in Japanese culture. The collection also leans heavily into surrealism, a trademark style for the author.

Interestingly, the collection’s story, “The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday’s Women,” was the original seed for the popular novel “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle,” which was published in 1995.

This collection is also  available in English here .

Japanese title: 100万回生きた猫

Yoko Sano’s book for children is that rare work that can be enjoyed by all generations alike, and who doesn’t love cats?

In this tale, a cat with more than nine lives is reborn over and over, living again and again with owners he dislikes. The cycle seems endless until one day, he gains an understanding of identity through experience.

The central metaphor of the story is about reincarnation and attaining enlightenment, much like devout Buddhists and Shinto followers do. Since Buddhism is Japan’s majority religion, and there are Shinto shrines peppered everywhere around the country, this story gives readers some real insights into the country’s spirituality. But it’s also quite a fun read.

Finally, a collection of stories chosen and laid out specifically for the Japanese language learner. This well done collection, translated by Giles Murray, who’s famous for his Japanese translation work, is a fascinating and satisfyingly cohesive read.

The book offers bilingual versions of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s most iconic pieces, “Rashōmon” and “In a Grove,” as well as four sections of Sōseki Natsume’s “Ten Nights of Dreams.”

The Japanese is accompanied by comprehensive, same-page dictionaries and uses on-paragraph numbering for quick referencing. The book is also divided into sections depending on your reading ability.

A bonus after reading “Rashōmon” would be to watch the well known Akira Kurasawa-directed masterpiece 1950 film afterward.

In the same vein as Giles Murray’s previous book, this collection compiled especially for Japanese language learners and Japan aficionados offers an easy-to-follow collection of truly classic Japanese tales. Each one is chosen to provide insight into Japanese culture, customs, and traditions, while giving readers insight into the Japanese mind.

While its most notable addition is Yukio Mishima’s “Patriotism,” the book also contains Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s “The Secret” and an excerpt of Yasunari Kawabata’s novel and masterwork, “Snow Country,” all major not-to-be-missed Japanese works of literature.

Although not categorized by reading levels, the stories are longer and generally more challenging than those in “Breaking into Japanese Literature,” so use caution with this one if you’re intermediate level on or below on your Japanese language journey.

This 272-page compendium consists of a variety of short stories by both well-known and emerging contemporary Japanese writers, with its most famous contributors being Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, both of which are included earlier in this list.

Perhaps the most challenging on this list, this collection features a simplistic and authentic-feeling layout: the Japanese is printed vertically, and all notes can be found in the back of the book rather than below the text. This helps advanced readers not rely too much on the English version, but it can be time consuming to hunt for a translated version if you’re intermediate or below. 

Nevertheless, the stories here are well chosen and perfectly capture the spirit of Japan past and present.

Another rock solid option for those looking to catch up on acclaimed modern short stories, with accurate and excellent translations included, is this collection, translated by well known Japanese scholar Michael Emmerich.

The cover has a painting of an adorably devious child entitled “Knife in Back” by contemporary artist Yoshitomi Nara, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this volume is for children.

The collection is structurally similar to “Short Stories in Japanese” and features a fascinatingly versatile array of genres, from horror to drama. Additionally, three of the six writers spotlighted are women: Banana Yoshimoto, Hiromi Kawakami and Yoko Tawada.

Many online databases and digital libraries offer unlimited access to dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of well known short stories in the original Japanese.

A digital library sponsored by the University of Virginia and the University of Pittsburgh, the Japanese Text Initiative is an excellent resource for classical Japanese works of fiction.

A great way to supplement your Japanese reading (or help ease you into it) is by watching Japanese videos and reading along with the subtitles. 

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

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Sayonara for now!

Take it from me: Nothing beats repetitive kanji drills like curling up with a good short story, so click the links, consider buying a collection or two, and get into reading.

You may just gain some cultural insights on Japan while you brush up your vocabulary and grammar as a bonus!

If you love learning Japanese with authentic materials, then I should also tell you more about FluentU .

FluentU naturally and gradually eases you into learning Japanese language and culture. You'll learn real Japanese as it's spoken in real life.

FluentU has a broad range of contemporary videos as you'll see below:

FluentU makes these native Japanese videos approachable through interactive transcripts. Tap on any word to look it up instantly.

All definitions have multiple examples, and they're written for Japanese learners like you. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.

The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You'll have a 100% personalized experience.

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Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake Beef Goes Nuclear: What to Know

The two rappers had circled one another for more than a decade, but their attacks turned relentless and very personal in a slew of tracks released over the weekend.

By Joe Coscarelli

The long-building and increasingly testy rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake exploded into full-bore acrimony and unverifiable accusations over the weekend. Both artists rapid-fire released multiple songs littered with attacks regarding race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, generational trauma and more.

Most relentless was Lamar, a Pulitzer Prize winner from Compton, Calif., who tends toward the isolated and considered but has now released four verbose and conceptual diss tracks — totaling more than 20 minutes of new music — targeting Drake in the last week, including three since Friday.

Each racked up millions of streams and the three that were made available commercially — “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” — are expected to land near the top of next week’s Billboard singles chart, while seeming to, at least momentarily, shift the public perception of Drake, long a maestro of the online public arena and meme ecosystem .

In between, on Friday night, Drake released his own broadside against Lamar — plus a smattering of other recent challengers — in a teasing Instagram interlude plus a three-part track and elaborate music video titled “Family Matters,” in which he referred to his rival as a fake activist and attempted to expose friction and alleged abuse in Lamar’s romantic relationship.

But that song was followed within half an hour by Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams,” an ominous extended address to the parents and young son of Drake, born Aubrey Graham, in which Lamar refers to his rival rapper as a liar and “pervert” who “should die” in order to make the world safer for women.

Lamar also seemed to assert that Drake had more than a decade ago fathered a secret daughter — echoing the big reveal of his son from Drake’s last headline rap beef — a claim Drake quickly denied on Instagram before hitting back in another song on Sunday. (Neither man has addressed the full array of rapped allegations directly.)

On Tuesday, a security guard was shot and seriously injured outside of Drake’s Toronto home, which appeared on the cover art for Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Authorities said they could not yet speak to a motive in the shooting, but the investigation was ongoing. Representatives for Drake and Lamar did not immediately comment.

How did two of the most famous artists in the world decide to take the gloves off and bring real-life venom into an extended sparring match for rap supremacy? It was weeks, months and years in the making, with a sudden, breakneck escalation into hip-hop infamy. Here’s a breakdown.

Since late March, the much-anticipated head-to-head seemed inevitable. Following years of “will they or won’t they?” lyrical feints, Lamar hit directly on record first this year during a surprise appearance on the song “Like That” by the Atlanta rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, both formerly frequent Drake collaborators.

With audible disgust, Lamar invoked the track “First Person Shooter” from last year’s Drake album, “For All the Dogs,” in which a guest verse from J. Cole referred to himself, Drake and Lamar as “the big three” of modern MCs.

Lamar took exception to the grouping, declaring that there was no big three, “just big me.” He also called himself the Prince to Drake’s Michael Jackson — a deeper, more complex artist versus a troubled, pop-oriented hitmaker.

“Like That” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as Future and Metro Boomin released two chart-topping albums — “We Don’t Trust You” and “We Still Don’t Trust You” — that were anchored by a parade of Drake’s past associates, each of whom seemed to share a simmering distaste toward the rapper, who later called the ambush a “20 v. 1” fight.

In early April, J. Cole fought back momentarily , releasing the song “7 Minute Drill,” in which he called Lamar overrated, before backtracking, apologizing and having the song removed from streaming services. But Drake soon picked up the baton, releasing a wide-ranging diss track called “Push Ups” less than a week later that addressed the field, with a special focus on Lamar’s height, shoe size and supposedly disadvantageous business dealings.

Less than a week later, Drake mocked Lamar’s lack of a response on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” a track released only on social media. It featured Drake taunting Lamar for being scared to release music at the same time as Taylor Swift and using A.I. voice filters to mimic Tupac and Snoop Dogg imploring Lamar to battle for the good of the West Coast.

“Since ‘Like That,’ your tone changed a little, you not as enthused,” Drake rapped in an abbreviated third verse, as himself. “How are you not in the booth? It feel like you kinda removed.” (“Taylor Made Freestyle” was later removed from the internet at the request of the Tupac Estate.)

But it was a seemingly tossed-off line from the earlier “Push Ups” that included the name of Lamar’s longtime romantic partner — “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney” — that Lamar would later allude to as a red line crossed, making all subject matter fair game in the songs to come. (It was this same alleged faux pas that may have triggered an intensification of Drake’s beef with Pusha T in 2018.)

How We Got Here

Even with Drake-dissing cameos from Future, Ye (formerly Kanye West), Rick Ross, the Weeknd and ASAP Rocky, the main event was always going to be between Drake, 37, and Lamar, 36, who have spent more than a decade subtly antagonizing one another in songs while maintaining an icy frenemy rapport in public.

In 2011, when Drake introduced Lamar to mainstream audiences with a dedicated showcase on his second album, “Take Care,” and an opening slot on the subsequent arena tour, the tone was one of side-eying competition. “He said that he was the same age as myself/and it didn’t help ’cause it made me even more rude and impatient,” Lamar rapped on “Buried Alive Interlude” of his earliest encounter with a more-famous Drake. (On his Instagram on Friday, Drake released a parody of the track, citing Lamar’s jealousy since then.)

The pair went on to appear together on “Poetic Justice,” a single from Lamar’s debut album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” in 2012, as well as “___ Problems” by ASAP Rocky the same year.

But their collaborations ceased as Drake became his generation’s premier hitmaker across styles in hip-hop and beyond, while Lamar burrowed deeper into his own psyche on knotty concept albums that brought wide critical acclaim alongside less constant commercial success.

When asked, the two rappers tended to profess admiration for one another’s skill, but seemed to trade subtle digs in verses over the years, always with plausible deniability and in the spirit of competition, leading to something of a hip-hop cold war.

The Week It Went Nuclear

Lamar’s first targeted response, “Euphoria,” was more than six minutes long and released last Tuesday morning. In three sections that raised the temperature as they built, he warned Drake about proceeding and insisted, somewhat facetiously, that things were still friendly. “Know you a master manipulator and habitual liar too,” Lamar rapped. “But don’t tell no lie about me and I won’t tell truths ’bout you.”

He accused the biracial Drake, who was born and raised in Toronto, of imitating Black American heritage and insulting him subliminally. “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress,” Lamar said. “I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct.” And he called Drake’s standing as a father into question: “Teachin’ him morals, integrity, discipline/listen, man, you don’t know nothin’ ’bout that.”

Days later, Lamar doubled down with an Instagram-only track called “6:16 in LA,” borrowing both Drake’s “Back to Back” diss tactic from his 2015 beef with Meek Mill and a song title structure lifted from what is known as Drake’s time-stamp series of raps. Opting for psychological warfare on a beat produced in part by Jack Antonoff, Swift’s chief collaborator, Lamar hinted that he had a mole in Drake’s operation and was aware of his opponent’s opposition research.

“Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person,” he rapped. “Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.”

That night, Drake’s “Family Matters” started with its own justification for getting personal — “You mentioned my seed, now deal with his dad/I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad” — before taking on Lamar’s fatherhood and standing as a man in excruciating detail. “They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen,” Drake rapped. “The picture you painted ain’t what it seem/you’re dead.”

Yet in a chess move that seemed to anticipate Drake’s familial line of attack, Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams” was released almost immediately. “This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game,” Lamar said, noting that Drake had erred “the moment you called out my family’s name.” Instead of a rap battle, Lamar concluded after another six minutes of psychological dissection, “this a long life battle with yourself.”

He wasn’t done yet. Dispensing with subtlety, Lamar followed up again less than 24 hours later with “Not Like Us,” a bouncy club record in a Los Angeles style that delighted in more traditional rap beef territory, like juvenile insults, proudly unsubstantiated claims of sexual preferences and threats of violence.

Lamar, however, didn’t leave it at that, throwing one more shot at Drake’s authenticity as a rapper, calling him a greedy and artificial user as a collaborator — “not a colleague,” but a “colonizer.”

On Sunday evening, Drake responded yet again. On “The Heart Part 6,” a title taken from Lamar’s career-spanning series, Drake denied the accusation that he preyed on young women, indicated that he had planted the bad information about his fake daughter and seemed to sigh away the fight as “some good exercise.”

“It’s good to get out, get the pen working,” Drake said in an exhausted outro. “You would be a worthy competitor if I was really a predator.” He added, “You know, at least your fans are getting some raps out of you. I’m happy I could motivate you.”

Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter with a focus on popular music, and the author of “Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story.” More about Joe Coscarelli

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