Takashi Saito's Elementary School Japanese Textbook: Definitive Edition for All Grades

◎Continuous reprinting, over 25,000 copies sold!! ◎"This is a truly fascinating book. It's advertised as being for elementary school students, but even adults find it captivating," says author Mariko Hayashi. (Weekly Asahi, July 15, 2022 issue) A major media hit, including Nippon Television's "Baguette," Josei Jishin, and Yukan Fuji! ◎A Japanese language textbook from Professor Takashi Saito to the entire nation ◎A must-have edition that will captivate both adults and children.

Helping children acquire Japanese language skills and develop intellect that will be treasured for life is the greatest gift we can give to the next generation.

With this belief in mind, Professor Takashi Saito spent a year and a half pouring his heart and soul into creating this "ideal elementary school Japanese language textbook."

Those who pick it up may be surprised by its thickness, at 544 pages, and may think it's too difficult for children.

However, textbooks, created with adult consideration so that children would not find the material too difficult, have fewer hard reading materials such as classics, leading to a decline in intellectual accuracy and, as a result, children's Japanese language skills are steadily declining.

In the International Student Assessment, Japanese reading comprehension, once among the best in the world, has fallen to an all-time low of 15th place.

In the midst of all this,

"Shouldn't we have more faith in children's potential?"

In line with Professor Saito's belief that "the most effective way to improve Japanese language skills is to become familiar with famous works," this book includes:

- Masterpieces by literary masters such as Natsume Soseki, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Goethe, and Shakespeare

- Classics such as "The Tale of Genji" and "Tsurezuregusa"

- Poetry by Kenji Miyazawa and Misuzu Kaneko

- Letters written by Ryoma Sakamoto to his sister

- Malala's speech at the United Nations Headquarters

- Kuniko Mukoda's famous essay "Postcard Without Words"

- Lyrics of contemporary hit songs by Yumi Matsutoya, Koji Miyamoto, Kenshi Yonezu, and others

...and many more, a total of 138 pieces.

Each piece has been carefully selected by Professor Saito himself as the best for improving Japanese language skills, and they are all included in their entirety.

Among them, Professor Saito is unique in presenting works themed around lemons, such as:

- Kajii Motojiro's novel "Lemon" - Takamura Kotaro's poem "Lemon Elegy" - Sada Masashi's song "Lemon" - Yonezu Kenshi's song "Lemon"

in chronological order.

In addition, all kanji characters are provided with furigana readings, helping students build vocabulary, kanji, and writing skills.

With questions and detailed explanations from Professor Saito for each work, the content fosters independent thinking and reading comprehension.

The experience of reading this thick, difficult textbook, measuring over 540 pages, in six years of elementary school will surely instill confidence and support in students as they move forward in life.

This is the perfect gift for children.

Furthermore, this book is not just for elementary school students; it is chock-full of beautiful passages that will warm the hearts of adults as they read.

We hope that you will once again feel the inspiring excitement of entering elementary school.

It is with this passionate feeling that we present this Japanese language textbook to all citizens.