A curated list of Japanese language learning resources
| 👶 beginner | 👨 intermediate | 👴 advanced |
|---|---|---|
| 📱 mobile app | 💻 computer software | 📡 browser extension |
| 🇯🇵 Japanese UI only | 🗾 Japan IP restricted | 💰 costs money |
| 📖 book | 📇 Anki deck |
If you are a beginner, please read these guides first
- Starter's Guide - from /r/learnjapanese subReddit.
- Japanese Walkthrough - A visual learning guide.
- Nukemarine's Suggested Guide for Beginners - A roadmap aimed at people involved in a career where one can only spare 1 to 2 hours a day for study.
- Complete Guide to Japanese - By Tae Kim.
Textbook provides you with a structured learning material.
Everyone's favorite Japanese textbook. Recommended for beginner. Description: Second edition of the most highly regarded teaching text book on the Japanese language, covering speaking, listening, reading, and writing to cultivate overall language ability. Each lesson in the revised edition features a new section dubbed Culture Notes," and now includes the audio CD companion which is in mp3 format ready to install on any music player. In Japanese/English.
- Official
- Amazon:moneybag:
- Anki Deck:card_index:
- Genki 1 & 2 - ALL the vocab from Genki 1 & 2 and more.
⚠️ Still updating
- Genki 1 & 2 - ALL the vocab from Genki 1 & 2 and more.
The "Tobira" textbook combines the practice of all four language skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) and is designed for use by students who have completed a beginning Japanese textbook or, in terms of classroom time, somewhere from 250 to 300 hours of Japanese study. The primary goals with this textbook are, to solidify the grammar, vocabulary and kanji foundation studied during the beginner level and to develop all 4 language skills. What makes this book unique is that you can learn Japanese using multimedia besides the textbook.
- Official - Unlock multimedia content and Anki deck with special code in the textbook.
- Amazon:moneybag:
- Tobira Textbook
- Tobira: Power Up Your Kanji - With it, students can study a total of 800 kanji-the 297 kanji generally introduced in beginning-level textbooks and an additional 503 kanji introduced in Tobira.
- Tobira: Grammar Power - Japanese grammar skill build up book.
- Easy Japanese - Made by NHK in multiple languages:baby:
- Erin's Challenge - Video based Japanese lessons:man:
Alphabet of Japanese language.
- Hiragana
- Tofugu for Hiragana
- Learn Hiragana in 1 Hour - Video class.
- Hiragana Practice Sheet - Print and practice.
- Listening Game for Hiragana - Flash based Hiragana game.
- Katakana
- Tofugu for Katakana
- Learn Katakana in 1 Hour - Video class.
- Listening Game for Katakana - Flash based Katakana game.
- Katakana Practice Sheet - Print and practice.
- Anki Deck
- Hacking Kanji - Guide: 2,200 Kanji in 97 Days.
- Kanji Koohii - Help you complete the kanji learning method called Remembering the Kanji.
- Kanji Damage - A Kanji learning method.
- Wakikani - Kanji learning platform:moneybag:
- Anki Deck
- Kodansha kanji learner's course with vocabulary - 📇This deck is meant to be used together with the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course book (KLC).
- Official KanjiDamage deck - 📇This is the ultimate deck to learn Kanji with the KanjiDamage method.
- All in One Kanji Deck (Heisig's RTK Order, 6th ed.) - 📇Based on Heisig's Remember the Kanji 6th ed. book
- Anki - Popular flashcard based software.:iphone::computer:
- Anki User Manual
- How to use Anki to Learn Japanese - Anki video tutorial.
- Anki Deck
- Japanese Core 2000 Complete - 📇Popular Anki Japanese Deck Core2k
- Japanese Core 2000/6000 - 📇Popular Anki Japanese Deck Core 2k/6k
- Memrise - Popular online/app flashcard platform.:iphone:
- Japanese Grammar Guide - By Tae Kim.:iphone:
- Visualize Japanese Grammar - links to 66 animations of various grammatical structures in Japanese and 12 downloadable appendices.
- JGram - The Japanese Grammar Database.
- Maggie Sensei - Conversational Grammar
- 📖Amazon💰
- A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar - Popular Japanese grammar dictionary series:baby:
- A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar - 👨
- A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar - 👴
- NHK Easy News - News for elementary, middle school, and foreigner with audio and video.:baby:
- Japanese Folktales - Japanese folktales with drawing and audio.:jp:
- Hukumusume Fairy Tale Collection - A website where you can read and hear traditional folk tales, legends and fairy stories - from Japan and all around the world - read aloud for you in Japanese.:jp:
- Kyoko Shinbun - Fake Japanese News(similar to The Onion), podcast available.:iphone::jp::older_man:
- 用例.jp - Search engine for Japanese sample sentences:jp:
- Japanese in Anime & Manga - Learn Japanese from anime and manga.
- Listen Together: The Songs of Japan - A website where you can search and listen to Japanese songs according to your preferences and level of Japanese.
- mykikitori - Practice your Japanese learning skill.
- Podcast
- Learn Japanese Pod
- JapanesePod101
- News in Slow Japanese
- NHK News Podcast - Three podcasts available: Japanese news:older_man:, English news, and Easy Japanese.
- /r/learnjapanese - Learn Japanese subreddit.:iphone:
- Kanji Koohii Forum - Forum which covers all aspects of Japanese learning.
- Lang-8 - A language learning platform where native speakers correct what you write.:iphone:
- Discord - Popular chatroom platform.:iphone::computer:
- English-Japanese Language Exchange - Highly active English/Japanese discord chat server.
- 日本語と英語 - Another popular English/Japanese discord chat server.
- HelloTalk - Popular language exchange app.:iphone:
- YouTube
- Nihongo no Mori - JLPT test-oriented YouTube channel.
- Dogen - Japanese phonetic lessons YouTube channel.
- Game Grammar - Teach you Japanese by playing video games YouTube channel.
- JapanesePod101 - Popular Japanese podcast's YouTube channel.
- News
- BBC News in Japanese BBC News in Japanese YouTube channel.
- Asahi News - Asahi News YouTube channel.
- Asahi News Live - 24/7 Asahi News Live stream.
- Fuji News Network - FNN live and vod.
- News24 - News24 Channel live and vod.
- Weather News Live - 24/7 Japanese Weather Channel Live stream.
- Stream
- QVC Japan - QVC Japan Shopping Channel Live stream.:warning:Flash required
- Keylabo - Free Japanese TV Live stream.:warning:some channels may not work
- Abema TV - Live Japanese TV stream.:iphone::japan:
- GYAO! - Japanese TV programs on demand.:iphone::japan:
- FRESH! - Japanese streamer platform.:iphone:
- NicoNico - Japanese streamer platform.:iphone:
- ARTV Japan - Android Japan TV stream app.:iphone:
- Web
- Jisho
- Weblio - 🇯🇵
- Google Translate - Supports voice and image translation, mobile app supports offline translation 📱
- Software
- Computer
- Human Japanese - Popular Japanese learning program.:iphone::computer::moneybag:
- Google Japanese Input - Google Japanese Input, available on windows, mac, and android.:computer::iphone:
- How to Install Japanese Keyboard on Everything - Guide by Tofugu.
- Browser Extension:satellite:
- Firefox
- rikaichan - Japanese to English/German/French/Russian dictionary. Just hover the mouse on top of a word, and a popup appears.
- Furigana Inserter - Allows you to insert furigana into a Japanese text.
- Chrome
- Yomichan - Yomichan turns your browser into a tool for building Japanese language literacy by helping you to decipher texts which would be otherwise too difficult tackle.
- rikaigu - Rikaikun enhanced. Translate Japanese by hovering over words.
- IPA furigana - Looks up the readings for kanji words and inserts them as furigana.
- Safari
- Safarikai - Rikaichan's Safari extension version.
- Firefox
Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.