Free Japanese learning resources
25 free resources, checked and categorised.
Every link is usable without paying. Some ask for a free account or keep extras behind a paid tier, and those are labelled.
Japanese takes longer than most languages for English speakers, and nearly all of the extra time is the writing system. The fastest route is unromantic: learn hiragana and katakana in the first week or two (they are genuinely learnable that fast), then start kanji immediately and never stop. Romaji feels helpful early and becomes a handicap within a month.
Grammar is the pleasant surprise. There are no cases to memorise, no gender and no plural agreement; the difficulty is word order and particles, which come from exposure rather than tables. Pair a structured course with a dictionary that handles conjugated forms, because looking up an inflected verb is otherwise painful.
Expect a long stretch where you can read more than you can hear. Graded readers are worth more than native material for most of the first year: a novel you cannot parse teaches far less than a simple text you fully understand. Add listening and native media once basic sentences are comfortable.
A realistic first year: kana in the first fortnight, then a course alongside steady kanji work, where a small daily number sustained for months beats intensive bursts, because kanji retention depends on repeated spaced exposure rather than intensity. Expect roughly a year before ordinary native text stops being a decoding exercise.
If your goal is speaking, note that textbook Japanese and casual spoken Japanese differ noticeably in verb endings and dropped particles, so add unscripted listening once the basics are solid. If your goal is reading, graded readers and manga with furigana bridge the gap far better than jumping to novels.
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Free Japanese grammar lessons with audio drama, text, vocabulary lists, and quizzes for studying expressions with Anna and Rodrigo
Free Japanese grammar lessons with audio drama, text, vocabulary lists, quizzes, and downloadable textbook lessons for studying expressions and basic structures
Free online Japanese course with 22+ chapter lessons on grammar, vocabulary, and reading/writing practice in hiragana, katakana, and kanji
Free JLPT N5 Japanese study downloads, including vocabulary MP3s, vocabulary and kanji lists, video files, and grammar checkers for practice
Free JLPT study resources with vocabulary lists, grammar and kanji sections, MP3 sound files, and links organized by test level and skill
Pastebin page of assorted Japanese-learning links to grammar references, lessons, dictionaries, reading material, and study tools
Searchable Japanese-English dictionary with words, kanji, and example sentences, plus tools for radical lookup, handwriting input, and advanced search filters
Online kanji course with 1,700 mnemonic lessons, radical breakdowns, searchable kanji entries, and an Anki deck for practicing stroke order and readings
YouTube channel with Japanese language study videos using the Kitani Method for English-speaking learners
Online private Japanese lessons for English speakers, plus free study materials like JLPT grammar, vocabulary, kanji, and level tests.
A native speaker's blog (in English). Info about the grammar and contexts, including colloquial Japanese.
Japanese study platform with vocabulary, kanji, grammar, sentence lookup, and lesson packs, plus games and customizable practice exercises.
Blog articles, reviews, and curated guides on Japanese learning, covering grammar, kanji, kana, podcasts, books, and study tools
Grammar reference with 66 Japanese grammar animation videos, 12 downloadable appendices, an index, and unit quizzes covering topics from sentence types to wh questions
Japanese study portal with course notes, daily kanji and grammar email lists, a kanji quiz tool, vocabulary and reading resources, plus community links
Searchable Japanese-English dictionary with word, kanji, and example-sentence lookups, plus radical and handwriting search tools.
Podcast episodes in slow, easy Japanese about news and stories, with downloadable audio and some native-speed versions; the full site also has transcripts and pop-up definitions
School blog with Japanese culture articles and occasional study-news posts, plus some reading challenge and e-book announcements
Japanese grammar video lessons from a YouTube channel, with lessons for learners around the world and a growing archive since 2013
Searchable English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionary with about 5.06 million entries, idioms, example sentences, related words, and audio pronunciation.
Online library of Japanese public-domain texts with searchable indexes by author, title, and genre for reading and downloading.
Learn it there, practise it here
Free resources are great for input: reading, listening, explanations. They are weaker at the two things that actually move you forward: speaking Japanese out loud, and remembering what you met once. That is what OwnSlides is for.
Say it out loud
Talk to an AI tutor that answers back, or get matched with other learners and native speakers for a text chat.
Practise what you read
Turn a grammar point or article into exercises, so it moves from recognised to usable.
Keep the words
Save new words to My Words and let spaced repetition bring them back before you forget them.
This directory began from a community-built list of free language resources, a year of collecting and checking by Joanna (u/chlebka) and dozens of contributors who suggested links, shared freely. See the original list. We have since expanded, re-checked and re-categorised it, and we keep the per-resource credits where the original list recorded them.