Although you can probably figure most of the games out without having to read the "What to do" text, there are a fair amount of word-games that will require some knowledge of Japanese. For example, there are 4 characters on the screen (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and Roman Characters). Each of the characters is a different color. Somtimes you will be asked to point to the RED one, other times you will be asked to point to the KANJI character.
The 1-banana elevator game is still in there... it is HARD. You have to beat that level in order to unlock the last character.