Beginner to Intermediate (ILR levels 0+ to 2)
- Wikipedia - Japanese Language
Introduction and overview in English of the Japanese language.
- Wikipedia - Japanese Writing System
Article focused on modern Japanese writing system and its history.
- Omniglot - Japanese Writing System
A collection of useful phrases in Japanese. Click on the English phrases to see them in many other languages.
- Virtual Japanese Keyboard
Useful tool that allows one to type in Japanese using mouse and then do directed searches in Google, Yahoo, YouTube, etc.
- Google Translate
Translate a word, a phrase, or a document from Japanese to English or reverse. Far from perfect but getting better all the time. Word level much better than phrase or text.
- Japanese-lesson.com
Self-study program produced by a native Japanese language teacher.
- Japanese Friend Exchange
10 free Japanese lessons.
- Let's Learn Japanese Basic 1
From Japanese Foundation, 26 online YouTube lessons, averaging about 30 minutes each.
- Let's Learn Japanese Basic 2
Continuation of Basic 1 (above0, Lessons 27-52.
- Learn Japanese Online
50 Lessons. "In each lesson, you can learn a useful expression through an audio drama. By the time you reach the end of the series, you will have mastered 50 handy expressions!"
From NHK World, part of NHK international broadcast service.
- News in Simplified Japanese
NHK Web news easy – Japanese broadcasting news, slow listening and easy reading with furigana on kanji
Intermediate to Advanced (ILR levels 2 to 3 and higher)
- Joint Language University
An extensive NCS-managed language training portal available to USG and military only through account registration. Resources include SCOLA products: news broadcasts, news archives, and the Insta-Classes – a variety of exercise based on broadcasts.
- DLIFLC Language Products
Developed by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) for military linguists, this website has some excellent sustainment materials; note in particular, Japanese materials in GLOSS which contains over 125 Japanese reading and listening comprehension exercises.
- JapanesePod101.com Online Dictionary
Search Japanese <> English; includes 20K most-commonly used words, as well as option to search vulgarities
- Japanese Grammar Guide
"Created as a resource for those who want to learn Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view." Released under the Creative Commons License - free to copy and distribute for non-commercial uses.
- Yomiuri Online
Japanese news from the Yomiuri Group, Japan's largest media conglomerate.
- NHK Radio News
Radio news at choice of listening speed: Normal, Slow and Fast - great for learners!
- NHK Web News
Listening and reading with text at regular speed.
- Asahi Online News
Web version of Asahi newspaper.
- Wikipedia - Japanese Edition
Close to 1 million articles. Use not only as a reference but also as a resource for reading materials – enter topic and you get a nice article written in perfect Japanese. Most articles are at ILR 2 to 3 levels; you can also link to English language versions to facilitate and speed up comprehension and minimize use of working aids. Important: Wikipedia contents are copyright free (see Creative Commons guidelines for details.)
Advanced Resources, Media, and Dictionaries
- Google.com Preset for Japanese Language
The Google search engine has been preset for you to search the Internet using Japanese. Also ideal for target language lexical and contextual searches and other language-oriented uses. Requires Japanese characters. (From above: Virtual Japanese Keyboard)
- Chuokoron Magazine
Advanced reading materials from Japanese monthly literary magazine.
- WirelessWire News
Reading - new business model, mobile data communications, etc.
- Shiten-Ronten
News commentators bureau; opinion pieces.
- NHK Online
Close up Gendai. Texts and partial listening with texts on various topics.
- Sunday Discussions -
日曜討論
YouTube. Search Nichiyoo Toron (日曜討論) and choose topic of interest.
- Squid TV - Japan
TV streaming from major news and entertainment media in Japan; also links to major newspapers.
- Google Translate
Translate a word, a phrase, or a document from Japanese to English or reverse. Far from perfect but getting better all the time. Word level much better than phrase or text.
- Denshi Jisho Online Japanese Dictionary
An "easy-to-use and powerful online Japanese dictionary. It lets you find words, kanji and example sentences by searching in many ways. The dictionaries are also interlinked so that you can check what the kanji in a word mean individually or what context a word can be used in. You can also look up kanji by the parts they contain."
- Nihongodict Online Japanese Dictionary
A free online Japanese <> English dictionary.