Josh Wheeler's Public Library

Well, I have hit the milestone of 1k Kanji. Nothing really big about it, other than in my head it is an amazing number. I never believed I would know the meaning and be capable of producing on demand one thousand Kanji characters. I finally have a methodology that will lead me further in my Japanese studies and from my current point of view, seems feasible. Thanks to Heisig's RtK, SRS and my cohort. Below are my Anki stats with respect to Kanji coverage:

Well, I have hit the milestone of 1k Kanji. Nothing really big about it, other than in my head it is an amazing number. I never believed I would know the meaning and be capable of producing on demand one thousand Kanji characters. I finally have a methodology that will lead me further in my Japanese studies and from my current point of view, seems feasible. Thanks to Heisig's RtK, SRS and my cohort. Below are my Anki stats with respect to Kanji coverage:

There were an estimated 17.14 million children under the age of 15 in Japan as of April 1, marking a record low for the 28th straight year, according to a government report released Monday.

     

The report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, released a day ahead of the Children's Day national holiday, showed that children's share of the population was 13.4 percent, declining for the 35th consecutive year.

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The latest figures continue to show the country is experiencing a declining birthrate and an aging population. As of April 1, the proportion of people aged 65 and older was 22.5 percent of the population.

     

Japan fell below Germany, where children accounted for 13.9 percent of the population, and Italy, where the proportion was 14.1 percent.

     

The government report showed there were 8.78 million boys and 8.35 million girls in Japan as of April 1.

     

By prefecture, Akita had the lowest proportion of children in the population, at 11.5 percent, followed by Tokyo, at 11.8 percent, according to figures as of Oct. 1. The highest was Okinawa, at 17.9 percent. Tokyo, however, was the only prefecture that saw its percentage rise from a year earlier.

Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

     

The maps date back to the feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the "burakumin," ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves.

     

Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan's sprawling metropolises. Today, rights groups say the descendants of burakumin make up about 3 million of the country's 127 million people.

     

But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan's elaborate family records, which can span back over 100 years.