Beginner to Intermediate (ILR levels 0+ to 2)

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.