Reorganising of the forum

Dear valued members,

The Wa-pedia forum has come to life as an offshoot of JREF's forum.

As you will have noticed the Japan Forum at Wa-pedia.com has undergone a major reconfiguration of categories.

What disappeared ?

The 'Japan on the web' forum, where people can introduce new websites, will remain exclusively on JREF as it is a direct extension of the Japan Directory.

The 'Japanese Music' category and the 'Entertainment' section, that included Anime & Manga, Movies & TV Series, Celebrities and Video Games, have been deleted altogether. We would like to kindly redirect these discussions to Japan Reference, where your old posts remain intact.

The 'Comfort Women', 'U.S. Forces in Japan' and 'Nikkei Affairs' are no longer subforums of their own. The first one will become a part of the History section. The second is now included in 'International Relations'. The third will be debated in 'Immigration & Foreigners'.

The Member Introductions forum will have a fresh start for new members of Wa-pedia.

The Community, Serious Discussion and most of the Chit-chat subforums have also been removed, at least temporarily. All non-Japan-related serious discussions are encouraged to take place on the Eupedia Forum.

What changed ?

The 'Nihongo forum' has been replaced by a quite different Japanese Language & Linguistics. The new forum will tackle the more technical or comparative aspects of Japanese as opposed to other languages. It will deal with untranslatable and cultural expressions, or debate the place and future of Japanese language in the world, its usefulness or deficiencies compared to other languages. Puns and linguistic jokes are also welcomed. Japanese language learning and practice, as well as exchanges in Japanese will still be possible on JREF.

The three subfora Site & Forum Updates, Support Requests and Site Feedback/Admin Contact have been merged into a single Site Updates, Feedback & Support.


What's new ?

Wa-pedia will aim at more specialised discussion about travel, traditional culture, history, culture shock, life and work for foreigners in Japan, with an emphasis on serious topics.

You will notice the creation of three new subforums : Culture & Traditions, Life in Japan and Visa questions. The purpose is to relieve the All things Japanese forum and make it easier to find existing topics.

The subforums about politics, economy, education, society and immigration are now part of a new Modern Japan category, and won't deal with news as much as personal analysis and opinions. The Wa-pedia forum should not be a place to copy and paste articles from news websites, but for discussing ideas and opinions. News can still be discussed in the What's in the News section though.

More mundane questions of people with little prior knowledge of Japan, first-timers planning a trip to Japan, translation requests, students needing ideas for their homework or thesis, and so on, should be asked on the new Help me ! subforum.