Japanese graded readers and what to read after them

Starting to read in Japanese comes with a hurdle you do not face in most other languages: you can already know a word and still have no idea how to read its kanji. Graded readers tackle both problems at the same time. They cap grammar and vocabulary by level and print furigana, the small kana above kanji, so you do not have to stop on every line. Research suggests that comfortable reading starts when you know around 98% of the words on a page (Hu and Nation, 2000), and graded readers are designed to give you that kind of text early on.

Japanese graded readers

The best-known series comes from the NPO Tadoku Supporters (NPO多言語多読), which produces graded readers for Japanese learners starting at level 0 for complete beginners and going up to roughly N3 at the highest levels. They are available in print and as ebooks, and the NPO also posts a collection of free stories on its website. Check the level printed on the cover and pick one level below where you think you are.

After graded readers

• Manga with furigana. Series aimed at younger readers usually put furigana next to every kanji, making them much more approachable than manga written for adults. Yotsuba&! (よつばと!) is a popular starting point because the dialogue sticks to everyday speech.
• Children's novels. Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便, Eiko Kadono) is written for younger readers and follows a story many people already know.
• Short modern novels. Kitchen (キッチン, Banana Yoshimoto) is brief and written in clear, contemporary Japanese.

Free classics: Aozora Bunko

Aozora Bunko (青空文庫) is a free, legal online library of public-domain Japanese literature. Good places to start include short works like The Restaurant of Many Orders (注文の多い料理店, Kenji Miyazawa), Gon the Fox (ごんぎつね, Nankichi Niimi), and The Spider's Thread (蜘蛛の糸, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa). Because some texts use older orthography, they often read a level harder than their page count might suggest.

What learners of Japanese report

Your first book can be manga. One learner shared that volume 1 of Slam Dunk in Japanese was probably the first Japanese book they read all the way through. It still took a reread, but they were able to follow the plot.

Start early with a one-click dictionary. A learner who uses Yomitan, a browser pop-up dictionary, alongside a texthooker argued that reading without a dictionary takes years, whereas those tools let you start within a few months once basic grammar is in place. You end up checking nearly every word at the beginning, but it gets comfortable faster than expected.

Yomitan and Anki work well once you get past the setup. One post described a developer who recommends pairing Yomitan with Anki for intermediate learners and says everyone who tried the setup liked it, provided someone configured it for them first. Installing the extension, loading dictionaries, linking AnkiConnect, and setting up card templates is the point where most people quit. Each flashcard keeps the original sentence the word appeared in, while FSRS times reviews right before you would forget. According to the post, the developer passed N2 this way without doing many past exam papers, starting with short textbook stories by Kenji Miyazawa, Osamu Dazai, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa that are available on Aozora Bunko. The poster also joked about a classic trap among Anki users: spending all their time polishing card templates while barely learning any words.

What the vocabulary workload looks like in numbers. One self-taught learner who went from zero to N1 in 13 months reported going through nearly 15,000 words across the N5 to N1 range in Anki over the equivalent of 26 full days (624 hours), retaining about eight or nine out of every ten words. They began at 30 to 40 new words a day and later pushed up to 60, spending four or five hours on heavier days with the highest-rated premade JLPT deck on the Anki site and a lookup extension that pulls in example sentences, screenshots, and audio in a single click. Everyone they suggested Anki to ended up dropping it because of the time commitment, and they agreed that almost any method works if you put in the hours.

Combine reading with listening and watching. Daily study logs from learners usually blend all three: reading Tadoku books first, working through an Anki deck at a steady pace, and then watching Japanese TV; or listening to one episode of a Japanese podcast, reading half a Tadoku book, and finishing with Japanese variety shows on YouTube.

After language apps, move to things you already enjoy. One response about what to do after Duolingo suggested game wikis, NHK News Web Easy, and manga instead of textbooks, provided you have a one-click way to look up words. Other learners moved from Duolingo to Renshuu, which one described as more useful and also free, or to Pimsleur for its native audio.

When browsing graded books, bookstore descriptions often highlight three helpful clues: short sentences, conversational dialogue, and an approximate JLPT level like N4 or N3.

How to keep going

1. Skip looking up every single word. If you can follow what is happening, keep moving.
2. Pick graded readers that feel easy, since reading speed matters just as much as difficulty.
3. Stay at your current level until reading feels smooth, then step up to the next one.
4. Reread books you liked; going back through a familiar story is still good practice.

Where Solaread helps

Solaread handles Japanese books by giving you a two-minute vocabulary check and then placing a short English gloss in parentheses right after the words you are unlikely to know, directly in the line of text. You can also double-click any other word to view its translation and save it along with its sentence. You upload your own EPUB, TXT, or PDF files; Solaread does not supply books.

Questions

Where can I find free Japanese graded readers?

The NPO Tadoku Supporters publishes a selection of free graded stories on its site, and Aozora Bunko has free public-domain books once you are ready for harder material.

What level of Japanese do I need to read manga?

Manga aimed at younger readers with furigana is generally manageable around N3, while manga written for adults usually takes around N2.

Should I read books with furigana?

Yes, while you are still learning. Furigana lets you read without constant pauses while still exposing you to the kanji every time it appears.

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