When I first set up this site, I wanted to support Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and English. But every extra language multiplies the cost of every post and every new feature. Not worth it. I even wrote about how running a multilingual site is a thankless job, and not long ago I removed Simplified Chinese entirely.

But after almost two years of writing, I decided it’s time to add a Japanese edition. The benefits finally outweigh the costs, and I’m willing to carry the weight of one more language.

Here’s my reasoning:

  1. The Japanese edition of my first book: 人生也是一個遊戲 (my book on treating life as a game) is now in proofreading. Next comes preparing the English and Japanese editions for independent publishing, so I need a Japanese blog to warm up for it. It will also be reference material for the Japanese freelance editor I’ll be looking for.
  2. Linking my site to my Japanese app: To promote the book, I plan to link this site to my app for the first time. And since it’s a Japanese learning app, it feels right for the site to have at least some Japanese-related content.
  3. My life needs more Japanese in it: I left Japan almost ten years ago. A while back I ran into some Japanese tourists visiting Kuala Lumpur, and chatting with them made it obvious how much my Japanese has decayed. I still read Japanese books occasionally, but far fewer than English ones. And outside of anime, J-dramas haven’t had much going on for years (Brush Up Life and Hot Spot aside). I realized I watch more K-dramas now. My life needs more Japanese in it.
  4. A practice method built just for me: This is the part I’m most excited about. AI translation is genuinely good now. If I make myself read the Japanese version of every post I write, that’s an incredible practice loop. The content is already the stuff I care about most. I’m essentially learning Japanese through the exact things I want to say, picking up vocabulary for my own interests along the way.

I have JLPT N1, but anyone who has actually passed N1 knows it doesn’t mean much. If I had to write a Japanese blog post from scratch, it would probably still be a mess, and it would seriously eat into my Chinese writing. So I’m taking the easy route: rely on AI translation completely, just read every post, and fix whatever feels off.

And someday, when the mood strikes, I’ll actually write one myself.