If you've never managed to stick with any English study material you've bought, Radio Eikaiwa's textbook is exactly what I'd recommend. Fifteen minutes a day, and on weekdays a brand-new lesson arrives. The routine is decided for you, so there's nothing to agonize over — and one textbook a month gives you a clean marker: "this is as far as I need to get this month." This article covers the basics of the 2026 season's broadcasts and streaming, and how to run your days with the textbook as your partner.

Today's Radio Eikaiwa: 15 Minutes on Morning FM

From the 2026 season, Radio Eikaiwa moved to NHK-FM. It airs Monday to Friday, 6:45 to 7:00 in the morning, with a rebroadcast from 12:30 at night. The instructor is Taito Ohnishi, the subtitle is "Heart de Tsukame! Eigo no Gokui" ("Grab It with Your Heart! The Secrets of English"), and the level is pegged at around B1.

Can't listen in the morning? No problem. The Rajiru★Rajiru catch-up stream is available for one week right after each broadcast ends, and on the NHK Gogaku app, each lesson can be heard for one week starting at 10:00 on the Monday of the following week. In other words, as long as you catch that week's lessons by the weekend, you're fine. Whether you're an every-morning type or a weekend catch-up type, the course works — that's its quietly great strength.

The Heart of This Course: Becoming Able to Say It

Radio Eikaiwa is not just a listening-training program. Ohnishi's explanations help you grasp grammar and expressions through the image of why they're said that way, and carry you all the way to saying them in your own words. Take the October 2026 issue, whose theme is "control": it lines up expressions for instructions, prohibitions, and warnings. Once you understand what situation and what force even a short warning like "Watch out!" is said with, you can swap it into your own life and use it.

The textbook is the script and the map for doing that. The full dialogue, explanations of the expressions, and paraphrasing practice — all gathered together for each day's lesson. You hear the flow in the audio, grasp the image in the textbook, and say it out loud to make it yours. Those three steps fit inside the same 15 minutes, every day.

How to Run Each Day with the Textbook

Keep weekdays simple. Listen to that day's lesson on the broadcast or the stream, open the textbook, and pick one "expression of the day." Then say it out loud, reworked for a scene from your own life. There's no need to memorize the whole dialogue. If you can say one thing, that day is a win.

Friday is Review day. Listen through the week's expressions again and sort out which ones you can say without looking at the textbook and which you can't. For the ones you couldn't, just say them out loud once more over the weekend. Even if you miss a day, the catch-up stream gives you a week — recover within the week and it doesn't count as falling behind.

Keep records low-key. Just write the one expression you learned to say that day in the margin of the textbook. At the end of the month, flip through the pages and you'll see the month's progress with your own eyes.

Print or Digital? If You're Torn, Start with One Print Issue

The textbook is monthly, in print and digital editions. The latest issue is the November 2026 issue (print). The digital edition (Kindle) can be read the moment it goes on sale and is searchable, but for your first issue I recommend print. You can write in the margins, and if you leave it on your desk, "today's lesson" catches your eye. Prices differ by format, so check the product page when you buy.

Sold separately, there's a Sub Notebook (November 2026 issue) / digital edition to strengthen dictation and reading aloud, as well as CD and downloadable audio materials. But the free streams are enough for the audio. Start by running one month with just one textbook; if it looks like you'll keep going, that's when to think about the next move.

Start by picking up this month's issue and joining in from this Friday's Review. Starting midweek is no problem at all. From next Monday, those 15 weekday minutes will gradually become your own.

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