The server privacy bot says hackers copied about 12GB of data, including Discord usernames and user IDs, IP addresses, location data, and email addresses. The attackers also took control of the bot’s Discord token, posted links “in about 50 large servers,” and “used a stolen payment key to commit financial fraud on a separate account.” [Link: Double Counter — Security Incident Report (4 October 2026) | https://doublecounter.gg/blog/security-incident-october-2026 | Double Counter]

Content warning: Mention of AI, criticism of a recent Anime Blog post I saw.

An alleged GameStop memo lists used PS5 Pro pricing as high as $1,499.99. The leak has not been confirmed, and its unusual date wording has already raised questions.

A new open-source tool is making waves in the Mac community by helping users reclaim valuable storage space taken up by Apple's AI models. Called "RemoveMacAI," the tool disables Apple Intelligence on macOS 27, removes its downloaded models, and prevents them from being downloaded again. In macOS 27, Apple removed the toggle to disable Apple Intelligence wholesale, and simply disabling individual features doesn't remove the models from your Mac's drive.

With the summer anime season ending a little later, of course I lost sight of the upcoming season. Well, it’s time to make a few picks as it seems to be

More and more, Japanese-language requirements are being added to more residence statuses. As a result, people need proof of proficiency; naturally, they flock to the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) to get it. However, this has resulted in demand for the exam getting so out of control that seats are disappearing left and right. So, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is asking its certified Japanese-language schools to consider alternatives to the JLPT. According to Kyodo News, this is the first time the ministry has made such a request. The ministry’s concern is practical: the JLPT is becoming difficult to operate at its current scale. But while other Japanese tests exist, the JLPT is still the only exam accepted across all of the government’s Japanese-language requirements. ## The JLPT: limited seats running out of room Picture: ふじよ / PIXTA(ピクスタ) The JLPT is Japan’s main standardized Japanese-language exam. It has five levels ranging from N5 (the easiest) to N1 (the most advanced). It is held just twice a year, in July and December. Demand has been climbing quickly. December 2025 was the first sitting to attract more than one million applicants worldwide, with 1,049,597 people applying across 81 countries and regions, as well as Japan’s 47 prefectures. Applications in Japan rose 23.4% from the previous year. N2 and N3 applications, in particular, jumped by 33.7% and 31.0%, respectively. The July 2026 sitting was also enormous, with 943,671 applicants worldwide, the highest number for a July sitting ever. Applications from inside Japan reached 376,028, up 6.9%. The thing is, there are only so many classrooms and testing venues available on each of the two dates each year. Competition is fierce, and preparations are intense. ### Beyond the Japan Headlines Since 2018, we've gone beyond clickbait and viral tweets to tell the story of a changing and evolving Japan. Stay up to date via our free newsletter, delivered to your inbox weekly. Email address Subscribe now → For the December 2026 test, organizers warned that applications could close early due to venue capacity limits. Registration opened on August 24, with a September 7 deadline. Instead, N3, N4, and N5 closed nationwide at noon on August 27, just three days after registration began. N1 and N2 followed at noon on August 31, a week before the deadline. N3 briefly reopened in Tokyo and Osaka at 10 a.m. on September 2, but Osaka closed again at 10:41 a.m. and Tokyo at 11:20 a.m. And if you need a particular JLPT level for a residence application, missing that three-day window isn’t just a minor scheduling inconvenience. ## Why the test suddenly matters more So, what kind of Japanese-language requirements are there, and where? Let’s look at the Business Manager visa, for example. Since October 2025, it requires either the applicant or a full-time employee to have B2-level Japanese (B2 signifying some professional fluency, not just conversational). This can be demonstrated with JLPT N2 or higher, though some other routes are available. Those include a score of 400 or more on the Business Japanese Proficiency Test (BJT) and certain Japanese educational qualifications. Related Reads * Pass the JLPT! Taking a JLPT Practice Test * Kanji Kentei: Inside the Japanese Test That Even Japanese People Find Difficult * JLPT Exam: What You Should Know Before Taking It For another example, since April 2026, certain customer-facing jobs under the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services status have also required B2 Japanese. JLPT N2 and the BJT are among the ways applicants can demonstrate it. And more requirements are coming. Some might see it as a good thing since, after all, if you’re living in a foreign country, you _should_ be able to speak its language. But there are many levels of fluency, and given how many foreigners work in elderly care in Japan, too many unnecessary requirements could put the country in hot water. From April 2027, Specified Skilled Worker (ii) will require B1-level Japanese. Among the tests currently listed for that purpose, only the JLPT offers the relevant level. JANE, a Japanese business organization, has argued that the existing testing environment has already reached its limit and has proposed a B1-level JFT-Basic, additional JLPT sittings, or both. Permanent residency is, potentially, another case. A draft guideline published in August 2026 says B1 Japanese would become a factor considered in permanent-residency applications filed from April 2027. But in all fairness, it doesn’t necessarily require applicants to pass the JLPT, and it includes exemptions. It’s not even the most stringent requirement. #### Not sure where to eat out in Tokyo? Our Yurakucho dinner tour takes you to three hand-selected spots that give you a culinary tour of Japan. $199/person for a shared table, minimum party of two, food & drink included at every stop. Question: do you like UJ's independent coverage of Japan? Our writers are supported by our members. Join Unseen Japan Insider to get bonus content every week, an ad-free website, and access to our large and growing Insider archive.If you love what we do, help us pay our writers to do more of it by joining Insider. You'll get bonus content every week, an ad-free website, and access to our large and growing Insider archive. ## Other tests already exist Picture: yo-sei / PIXTA(ピクスタ) The irony is that the Japanese government already recognizes several Japanese-language tests. For international students entering university, there’s JLPT N2 or higher, a Japanese score of 200 or more on the Examination for Japanese University Admission (EJU), 400 or more on the BJT, or 525 or more on the Japanese Proficiency Test (JPT). Unfortunately, those alternatives don’t transfer neatly across the immigration system. The JLPT is the one test that appears across the various Japanese-language requirements. Other exams aren’t necessarily disregarded, but they’re not guaranteed to tick the most important boxes. That leaves students and workers in an awkward position. A person can demonstrate Japanese proficiency through another examination but still need the JLPT because the specific residence status they’re applying for doesn’t recognize the alternative. ## What happens next? This brings us back to the ministry’s request to language schools to use alternative, existing tests. That way, with students from those schools being redirected, it would presumably open up a bit more space for those who can’t choose an alternative to the JLPT to fill job or visa requirements. Many commenters online have also pointed out that the JLPT doesn’t capture a person’s ability to speak Japanese. It only covers listening and reading comprehension, so a person could theoretically ace the N1 level but be completely unable to join a conversation. Meanwhile, someone who can’t even pass N5 might speak very well. Others suggested increasing the current JLPT fee of ¥7,500 (~$47.75), or implementing pre-screening. And still more say that the best solution is simply to have more JLPT sittings per year, perhaps three or four instead of just two. After all, isn’t it a little ridiculous for the government to demand schools take responsibility when they created the problem by adding visa requirements? The ministry is right to be concerned about the bottleneck occurring. Its current solution, asking others to choose alternatives where they can, isn’t the worst, but it likely won’t be enough, and it remains to be seen how the situation will resolve. ### Keep reading Living in Japan #### Ranking Japan’s Best Cities for Immigrants Perhaps it's surprising, or perhaps not—but when you weigh all of these factors, Tokyo is not the winner. Oct 7, 2021 8 min → Living in Japan #### What Is My Worth as a Foreigner in Japan? A Pandemic Query Our author discusses how the pandemic has laid bare elements of how the Japanese public and government perceive the foreign residents in… Sep 27, 2021 7 min → Japanese Language #### A Japanese Teacher’s Reflections on “Living” Language Japanese teacher Chihiro Morioka reflects on a career spent learning and teaching language in both Japanese and English - and the lessons… Aug 11, 2021 9 min → Culture #### How Roppongi Became a Hotspot for Foreigners in Tokyo Roppongi is famous for its high population of foreigners. Why is it so popular with tourists? And how do Tokyo residents feel… Oct 7, 2020 4 min → ## Go ad-free. Get more UJ. Insiders read Unseen Japan ad-free. No pitches, no upgrade nags - just eight years of solid Japan content. Plus a bonus piece every week that doesn't fit our standard news rotation: sharper takes, cultural deep dives, and the more risqué side of Japan. A few popular members-only reads: * **What To Know BEFORE You Try Having Sex in a Karaoke Room** * **A Famous Japanese Novelist Dumps Her Publisher After a Discriminatory Column** * **In Japan, an Affair Is Only Cheating If You Get Caught** You also get the full Insider archive, "ask us anything" access with the team, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe now → ## Sources 【独自】「日本語能力試験」の応募者急増 文科省、代替活用を初要請 Kyodo News 認定日本語教育機関の認定結果 MEXT 高等教育機関等へ入学するための日本語能力について Immigration Services Agency 日本語能力試験 2025年12月試験 実施概要 JLPT 日本語能力試験 2025年7月試験 実施概要 JLPT 2026年第2回試験実施案内 JEES 日本語能力試験 2026年7月試験 実施概要 JLPT 2026年第2回日本語能力試験の申し込み受付終了 JEES 2026年第2回日本語能力試験N1N2締切 JEES 2026年第2回日本語能力試験N3東京大阪再募集開始 JEES 2026年第2回日本語能力試験の申込について（N3【東京都】【大阪府】再募集締切のお知らせ） JEES 議題② 外国人の適正な日本語能力を確認する試験の見直しについて Cabinet Office 在留資格「経営・管理」に係る上陸基準省令等の改正について Immigration Services Agency 「技術・人文知識・国際業務」の在留資格の明確化等について Immigration Services Agency 育成就労制度の概要（令和８年７月改訂） Immigration Services Agency 永住許可に関するガイドライン改定案に係る意見募集について e-Gov 4つの特徴 JLPT

Framework's 192GB Desktop pairs Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 with Radeon 8065S graphics. Pre-orders start at $6,799, with only one batch planned initially.

Japanese e-book distributor and publisher BookLive recently conducted a manga analysis based on title and purchase data (source: GameBiz). The study examined how the titles of manga have changed in content and length over the years, as well as purchasing behavior, the diversification of reading habits, and the relationship between these three variables. It was discovered that manga titles now are roughly two times longer than they were 15 years ago. Not only did the average number of Japanese characters in the title of a manga’s first volume jump from 9.14 in 2011 to 18.45 in 2026, but the median also increased from 8 to 16 characters in the same years. When classified by gender, current titles aimed at men average about 17.11 characters, while those aimed at women average 19.46 characters. The trend toward longer titles was attributed to an increasing number of readers who prioritize efficiency of time and cost-effectiveness. Longer titles have a greater tendency to be more descriptive, thereby lessening the chance that prospective readers might be disappointed with the content after buying them. These “synopsis-style” titles, which were driven by the popularity of web novels, now serve as tags that can easily be entered into an e-bookstore search engine. The words used in manga titles have also changed over the years. Shonen and seinen works with “alternate world/isekai,” “reincarnation,” and “strongest” in their names have frequently gone on to become bestsellers, along with the growing trend to showcase the world-building and protagonist’s abilities in the title. Shojo and women’s manga titles have seen more of an evolution. Manga titles which included romance-centered words like “love,” “marriage,” and “romance” were prevalent in 2016, followed by realistic (some would say “drama-based”) titles with the words “housewife,” “exploitative workplace,” and “neighborhood” in 2019. Since 2021, isekai-associated words such as “young lady,” “villain,” “doting love,” and “saint” have gone to dominate BookLive’s top sellers list. On the topic of top sellers, many readers were found to read titles outside of the bestsellers list. BookLive’s top 100 best-selling titles only accounted for 15.3% of its total sales over the past year, with titles outside of the top 100 accounting for roughly 85%. Additionally, 42.9% of readers did not purchase a single book from the top 100, indicating a majority shift to non-bestsellers. Bulk purchasing has also increased over the years, with the average number of books purchased per transaction increasing from 1.19 in 2011 to 2.82 in 2026. The average total purchase amount also increased from 567 JPY ($ 3.60 USD) to 1,327 JPY ($ 8.43 USD). Both statistics were observed across several demographics, suggesting that e-books and promotional sales have led buyers to purchase and read completed series all at once. **Related:Shonen Jump’s print circulation has dropped below 1 million for the first time, but that doesn’t mean the manga industry is in trouble, domestic journalist argues** **Japanese web novel platform behind the isekai and narou-kei boom officially tops 200 anime adaptations as inquiries for commercialization keep rolling in **

Two trailers carrying NVIDIA logos were stolen from autonomous trucking company PlusAI. Police later recovered them with all 20 tons of test ballast sand still inside.

Xbox will lay off 268 employees across Halo Studios, ot [...] The post Xbox lays off 268 employees as Halo, Rare, and World’s Edge move to Activision, Obsidian Entertainment moves to Betheseda Softworks, and Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios merge appeared first on CVG.