Hello, this is RWPOINTWOMAN, and I am slowly learning Japanese. I am currently working on the vocabulary contained in Darker than Black and Darker than Black: Jet Black Flower, purinlala tweets, ShiliTV subtitled videos on YouTube, other subtitled videos I manage to find and Easy-level Easy Japanese articles.

My vocabulary runs the gamut from JLPT N5 (beginner) to JLPT N1 (advanced) but it is small. My grammar pretty much tops off at at the middle of N3 (intermediate), but I am working on that with Nihongoal, a YouTube channel dedicated to teaching out of the Minna no Nihongo textbook.

My listening practice consists mainly of watching the first season of DtB and, to a lesser extent, Asahi News Network's YouTube channel. My writing practice mainly consists of replying to purinlala on Twitter. My speaking practice consists entirely of reading Japanese words out loud into my phone for my Anki deck; it has been a while since I talked to my friend who speaks Japanese.

And my reading practice consists of reading the subtitles of YouTube videos, the DtB manga, various Japanese Twitter accounts, and, of course, Easy Japanese.

Over 12,000 illegal knockoffs seized by customs for 11th straight year. (Asahi)

For the 11th straight year, the number of goods seized by customs for violating intellectual property laws, etc., exceeded 12,000 in the 1st half of the year.

According to the Ministry of Finance, 12,519 imported goods were seized by customs all over Japan for reasons like being knockoffs that violated brands' intellectual property rights in the first half of the year, representing the continuation of a trend towards a high level.

The most common type of commodity was bags and over 70% of them came from China.

From October onward, the controls on imported goods will be strengthened and the target is goods ordered online or by mail by people who do not know they are knockoffs.

Price per plate of kura sushi increased from ¥110 to ¥115. (NHK)

Conveyor belt sushi chain Kura Revolving Sushi Bar is raising the price of its cheapest sushi plate from ¥110 to ¥115 in October.

This is because the fish and transporting it have risen. This is the first time it has been raised since 1977, the year the chain was founded.

The company president said, "The prices of various things have risen. We think it would be difficult to continue without raising ours."

There are other conveyor belt sushi companies raising their prices. Sushiro is raising its ¥110 sushi plate's price to ¥120 in October.

"Come to Miyagi Prefecture for technical training in nursing," says prefectural governor in Vietnam. (NHK)

Foreigners undergoing technical training in Japan work while studying. They most commonly come from Vietnam. The Miyagi Prefecture prefectural governor, Murai, went to people who were studying to become foreign technical trainees in a place near Hanoi, Vietnam on September 8.

The Japanese population is aging. Miyagi Prefecture believes that there will a shortage of nurses of over 13,700 by 2040. The prefectural governor saw Vietnamese youth studying nursing in Japanese. And he said, "Please come to Miyagi Prefecture to pursue technical training."

However, recently, the yen has been deprecating and the value of wages paid in it when converted to Vietnamese currency has been decreasing. There are also people going to Taiwan instead because of this.

Japanese government decides to give ¥50,000 to low-income households. (NHK)

On September 9, the Japanese government decided to financially bail out people having difficulty affording rising prices and corporations.

Low-income households will be sent ¥50,000. The plan is to give to 16 million households by the end of the year.

The Japanese government is giving money to companies that import crude oil to prevent gasoline prices from rising too high. It has decided to continue this until until the end of the year.

The Japanese government imports about 90% of the wheat used in Japan and sells it to Japanese corporations. The price is rising because of the cheap yen, but it has decided not to increase the price it sells it to corporations at.

As the price of things such as corn rises, the price of things like feed for livestock like cattle and pigs also rises. Because of this, the Japanese government has decided to send money to farmers who raise livestock like cattle.

New COVID-19 vaccines to be given starting next week. (NHK)

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved new vaccines against the novel coronavirus made by Pfizer and Moderna for use in Japan on September 12.

The new vaccine contains ingredients that are effective against both the same strain as before and the omicron variant. It is currently thought to be effective against the omicron variant.

The Pfizer version can be used in patients 12 and up and the Moderna version can be used in ones 18 and up. It will be used in those who have had at 2 shots of the original.

The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare plans to give them to patients aged 12 and older for whom it has been at least 5 months past their last shot. Starting next week, it will be given to the elderly and those working in medical facilities. Afterwards, they will discuss this with entities such as prefectures and towns and the number of people it will be given to will increase.