awesome-japanese-study-materials

two Japanese friends in their 20s chat about everyday life in completely unscripted, natural Japanese. Great immersion listening for N3-N1 learners. Available on

free daily podcast retelling real news at a slow, learner-friendly pace, with vocab and grammar; also on Apple Podcasts & Spotify

practice Japanese on real news

free N5/N4 sample cards for learners who want vocabulary, grammar notes, and register explanations from anime, J-pop, drama, and news contexts. Extended lesson pack is optional/paid.

good for learning new words, practicing reading and listening. Most content is locked behind paywall. If you want an interactive app to learn vocab, go for it, otherwise you're not missing out on too much.

AI photo-to-vocabulary app for Japanese learners. Snap a photo of any object — a 弁当, a 駅 sign, a 自動販売機 — and the app extracts Japanese words with example sentences and pronunciation. Uses FSRS spaced repetition for review scheduling. All images are stored locally on device, no upload. Free with optional subscription.

Free bilingual (English/Chinese) grammar notes covering JLPT N5→N2. Each grammar point has meaning, conjugation rules, example sentences with TTS audio and furigana, and comparisons of easily-confused grammar. Downloadable Anki decks included. No signup, no ads.

a language learning app tailored for Asian languages, including Japanese. It offers structured lessons with a focus on grammar, sentence structure, and pronunciation, making it ideal for building a solid foundation. Again, most content is locked behind a paywall.

a highly recommended app. It’s effective for building foundational skills in Hiragana, Katakana, and even Kanji. The lessons follow a well-structured pace that keeps learning engaging without overwhelming. It provides solid practice in grammar and listening. Best of all, it’s free to use, making it accessible to everyone, although after making some mistakes (3-4), you need to wait some time to use it again. A subscription is available to access unlimited practice sessions.

an open-source, local-first Japanese speaking practice app for Korean learners. It uses reviewed dialogue banks and local STT/TTS instead of runtime LLM calls, and includes a hosted mock-mode demo for trying the app shape.

a graded reading and listening app with JLPT-leveled short stories (pre-N5 to advanced), each with furigana, native audio, and tap-to-translate. Great for building reading and listening together once you know your kana. Free to start, with an optional subscription.