WP_Multilingual, a multilingual plugin that had stopped working after upgrading to WordPress 2.8, is now back up and running thanks to the developer who kindly provided an alpha version.

So far, it is running without any noticeable issues.

FCKEditor, which used to be required, is no longer needed, allowing you to edit posts directly within WordPress's clean native interface. The language switcher has also been turned into a widget. Beyond simply working again, it's really great that the aspects I previously considered shortcomings have been addressed. Since there was no Japanese localization, I promptly translated it and provided the language files.

If you are a WordPress user considering multilingual support, be sure to give it a try.