Easy Japanese news in translation: Oyster harvesting begins in Hiroshima Prefecture

Oyster harvesting began on November 2 in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan's leading oyster-producing region. Summer 2022 was unusually hot, with elevated seawater temperatures that delayed the harvest by approximately a month compared to previous years. Workers at Shimada Suisan, a company located in Hatsukaichi, a city in Hiroshima Prefecture, initiated operations shortly after 6 a.m. They used a crane to lift wire lines, each about 10 meters long, and collected oysters one by one from the oyster farming rafts.

This news is sourced from the Mainichi Shogakusei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper tailored for children learning Japanese. It serves as an excellent resource for beginners who have mastered hiragana and katakana, encouraging them to read the article in either English or Japanese, or vice versa, to gauge their comprehension. A new edition will be released every Wednesday and Friday at 4 p.m. Japan time.

Previous issues can be accessed via the provided link. Intermediate learners who do not require English support can directly visit the Mainichi Shogakusei Shimbun website. Furigana, hiragana characters written above kanji, are included in the text to aid in pronunciation.