Sometimes, written Japanese can seem like an entirely separate language from spoken Japanese, but reading skills and listening skills complement each other to a high degree.
Luckily for learners, there’s an excellent way to develop both of these skills at the same time: studying with audiobooks. Get 15 diverse Japanese audiobooks in this post that can help you hone your listening skills.
Earworms mbt® Rapid Japanese puts the words and phrases you need not just on the tip of your tongue, it transports them deeply into your long-term memory, ready for instant recall.
Simply listen to the music filled with rhythmic repetitions a few times and listeners will subconsciously acquire a collection of verbs, nouns and connecting words, all the while picking up the correct accent.
This is your survival kit of immediately useful words and phrases for your visit abroad.
This option offers a variety of different short pieces, including poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction. All the Japanese stories in this compilation are read by the same voice actor, who speaks slowly and clearly.
Beginners can definitely benefit from this audiobook series.
Arguably Natsume’s most popular and most “Japanese” novel, “Kokoro” tells of a special relationship between a student and a mysterious older man who becomes a very unusual mentor to him.
Despite being a long text, “Kokoro” is highly suitable for studying purposes because it’s written in straightforward language and divided into 110 very short chapters.
Ikigai is the Japanese word for “a reason to live” or “a reason to jump out of bed in the morning”. It’s a Japanese concept describing that you have a purpose in this world, a place of balance.
This audiobook will help you find your ikigai and show you how you can change your life.
The Book of Five Rings is a story about kenjutsu and the martial arts, written by the undefeated Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi around 1645.
It’s a classic Japanese text where Musashi recorded his “true principles” which guarantee victory in martial arts and on the battlefield.
How to Find Quality Japanese Audiobooks Online
The best keyword to search for if you’re looking for great Japanese audiobooks is 朗読 (ろうどく) or “reading aloud.” Or you can do a simple search with the title of a popular text and the keyword 朗読 to find versions of it being read aloud on YouTube or other websites.
For easy browsing, here are some great websites where you can find Japanese audiobooks:
青空朗読(あおぞらろうどく — Aozora Rōdoku): Has free recordings of public-domain texts that are available in text-only versions on Aozora Bunko.
LibriVox: Free public domain audiobooks read by volunteers. Especially useful for finding longer, novel-length books.
Audible: Mostly offers instructional Japanese audiobooks, with fairly affordable prices and a free trial available.
Innovative Language: Mostly offers instructional Japanese audiobooks, with a variety of language levels (sorted by a 1-9 level, from “Introduction” to “Advanced”) and some free offerings.
Loyal Books: Offers a good variety of free public domain audiobooks accessible directly from your web browser, and some have corresponding text and English translations.
If you come across any unknown words in your Japanese audiobooks, a dictionary app is helpful to have on hand.
And if you want even more listening practice, check out the FluentU language learning program—it uses videos to teach you how natives actually use their language.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
If you love learning Japanese with authentic materials, then I should also tell you more about FluentU.
FluentU naturally and gradually eases you into learning Japanese language and culture. You'll learn real Japanese as it's spoken in real life.
FluentU has a broad range of contemporary videos as you'll see below:
FluentU makes these native Japanese videos approachable through interactive transcripts. Tap on any word to look it up instantly.
All definitions have multiple examples, and they're written for Japanese learners like you. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.
And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.
The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You'll have a 100% personalized experience.
