JJapanese

Recommendations for reading in Japanese?

  • May 23, 2025

Hi, I'm looking for an app, website, etc. that will allow me to read in Japanese with the ability to easily check furigana and definitions when needed by tapping the word or something; I don't want to have to open a dictionary if possible.
However, the furigana/definitions by default need to be hidden or I will end up looking at those instead of absorbing the actual Japanese/kanji.
Also, it would be amazing if the content was (fictional) novels because that would be more interesting/motivating for me than short stories or news articles, but that's not a requirement.

If it's relevant, my spoken Japanese is somewhere around N2 to N1, but my kanji is only around N3, so I know a lot of words that I don't know the kanji for.

Any recommendations?

by Batenna

6 comments

  1. [NHK Easy News](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/) comes to mind for news content, as does the [Tadoku Project](https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/) for fiction content.

    Tadoku doesn’t have a load of content at your level available for free on their websites, but they have paid stuff and also promote other material (books and manga) that match their levels. It’s worth having a look at their methodology, which IMO is well-matched to how we understand language acquisition to work.

  3. Kindles have a built in dictionary which makes lookups easy, and it also saves looked up works for easy review later.

  4. If you are using a PC, I think you can do this on Google Chrome by installing Google Translate or Deeple Translate as a Chrome extension.

  5. Todaii is a news app that’s specifically designed for people learning new languages, I use it every day.
    It checks all of your boxes except for the fictional bit ofc, even has a built in dictionary where you can favorite words etc etc.

  6. Would you mind if I DM you (I don’t want to sound too spammy by posting a link)? We’re building a site that does almost exactly what you’re asking and would love to get some feedback.

    We have a collection of fictional stories like うさぎとかめ and ごんぎつね. For each you can toggle the English translate, or just the kanji/furigana. Each story is optionally read aloud by native Japanese speakers.

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