Using apps is a fantastic way to learn Japanese, whether you’re a beginner or advanced. In this post, you’ll find a list of the best free Japanese learning apps for various learning needs, so you can easily choose the one for you.
Is it really possible to learn Japanese in just five minutes a day? Duolingo sure thinks so, and it looks like they deliver.
Many people give up on learning a new language because they just can’t find the time to study. Duolingo focuses on light, quick lessons that you can take during your work break, on your commute home or whenever you can find just a few free minutes.
Does Duolingo work? The answer is yes, if you use it right and stick with it. Duolingo is great for jumpstarting serious language learning, quick vocab lessons, developing…
LingoDeer is known for their high-quality curriculum for Asian languages. And it uses cute, interactive animations and features lesson plans designed by experienced Japanese teachers.
Each lesson is split into bite-sized chunks which teach vocabulary, writing and sentence structure through repetition and various types of questions. Words and entire sentences are paired with clear audio which can be slowed down for better understanding.
LingoDeer is available for Android and iOS devices and can be useful for all Japanese levels, though beginners will benefit the most from this app.
Here’s a full LingoDeer review if you’re interested in it:
My honest LingoDeer review for 2024 is based on trying to learn Japanese on LingoDeer in one week! I give all my honest impressions of the LingoDeer program and discuss…
Turning something educational into a video game can make you more inclined to learn. At least, that’s the idea Mondly has based their language app around.
The more lessons you complete, the further you make it on the app’s map. The lessons mix kanji and spoken Japanese together so you can get a full education in a condensed package. Think Rosetta Stone but with a more goal-oriented spin.
The free version has plenty of content to keep you busy learning but you can also purchase a premium subscription, which includes benefits like exclusive lessons, modules and conversations.
If you want to learn more about Mondly, I recommend checking out this full review:
Mondly lets you use AR, robots and other nifty tech to learn languages. But does it work? We tested the program to find out. Click here to read this in-depth review to see…
Instead of forcing you to adhere to a pre-designed lesson plan, this app allows you to pick and choose what you want to learn every time you use it.
Greetings, travel, love, friendship, food: You get to decide the topic you want to cover. And with over 65 topics to choose from, containing a huge total of 5,000+ phrases and words to learn, you’ll always find something to interest you.
Beginner and intermediate learners will also appreciate the vocabulary lookup options.
If you’re a visual learner, Infinite Japanese will be right up your alley.
This app focuses on learning Japanese the “natural” waywith absolutely no English. Instead, graphics help you associate Japanese words with their meanings.
There are six difficulty modes, so every learner can benefit from this app.
The free portion contains plenty of material, but to get access to the many locked lessons, you’ll need to pay for premium features.
Like Infinite Japanese, Memrise takes a more visual approach to learning the language. There’s lots of media, like audio pronunciations and video conversations.
Memrise is primarily a vocabulary-learning app, with many different lists available to study from. It then uses spaced repetition to perfect your memory of a word or phrase, which is then reinforced with frequent reminders of already-learned words.
There are many different mini-courses, from Introductions to Politics. While a lot of content can be accessed for free, you’ll need a subscription to unlock everything.
If Memrise sounds like an app you might want to use, I recommend reading this more in-depth review:
Can you master a foreign language with Memrise? In this review, we’ll investigate how the Memrise program teaches languages and whether it’s worth the cost of a…
If you want to improve your Japanese writing, Write it! Japanese might just be what you’re looking for.
The smooth interface of this app is super user-friendly and has features like handwriting recognition, guided writing lessons, practice tests, customized reviews, audio support and more.
Bravolol lets you pick and choose what you want to learn at any given time.
What really sets this app apart from the rest is its “snail” mode. If you’re having trouble keeping up with Japanese pronunciation, clicking the little snail next to each lesson slows the audio down.
The free version runs on ads, which can sometimes get intrusive. The premium version is ad-free.
This app focuses on writing and reading Japanese characters. It’s also a fantastic Japanese dictionary to have on hand when you need to know what a romaji, kanji or hiragana word means.
There’s also a ton of vocabulary—over 2,300 Kanjis for JLPT levels N5-N1 and over 14,600 Japanese words total.
Anki is one of the most popular flashcard apps for language learners because of its spaced repetition algorithm. When reviewing flashcards, you rank whether it was hard, good or easy for you to recall. If you got it wrong, you click “again.”
Based on your rankings, Anki schedules your reviews at the most optimal time intervals for your long-term memory. So cards that are difficult to recall will be presented to you more often than the easy ones.
You can create your own Anki decks or download pre-made decks from other users. There are tons for Japanese, including decks with the 6,000 most common words. You can check out all of them here.
And you can find one of our writers’ personal favorite Japanese decks in this post:
There are hundreds of Anki Japanese decks you can instantly download for free to improve your vocabulary and grammar. Click here to find the top three Japanese Anki decks,…
Lastly, here’s an in-depth guide on how to use Anki. I highly recommend checking it out to maximize your study time:
Spice up your flashcards with a powerful application that does the dirty work for you. Anki is the SRS flashcard program of the century. Click here to uncover powerful…
This is an app by Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese, one of the most popular Japanese grammar websites. There are 69 lessons divided into five chapters, and all of them are free.
Like the website, the focus is on teaching you grammar. The lessons are meant to be intuitive—instead of learning from an English point of view, you’ll be learning grammar from the perspective of a native speaker.
The lessons include particles, tenses, polite forms, conditionals, causative, honorifics and more. And you’ll also learn Hiragana and Katakana if you haven’t yet.
There’s also a progress feature, which I personally love.
Todaii offers specialized reading and listening practice through their one-click look-up feature, plus JLPT prep for all five levels.
The reading feature lets you browse articles in the app. When you come across a word you don’t know, clicking on it will bring you an instant translation. They offer articles in over 22 topics, including news, culture, entertainment and Japanese life. They revise their content daily and there’s something suitable for all levels, including N5.
There’s also plenty of audio, video and podcast material for improving your listening skills. You can choose to just listen or read the transcripts at the same time. Materials include trending videos and the latest Japanese news.
Finally, there’s the JLPT prep feature. Todaii offers vocabulary lists for all five JLPT levels, starting at N5 with 588 words and ending at N1 with 2,778 words. There are also over 36 practice JLPT questions for all levels that use instant grading with detailed explanations of incorrect answers.
Tips for Using Japanese Language Apps
The apps I recommended are pretty easy to use, but I want to make sure you can benefit from them fully. So here are a few tips:
Use your app daily. Set notifications for lessons if the app contains such a feature, or add a reminder in your own daily calendar. Be consistent and be sure to schedule app time for when you aren’t busy and can find a quiet space to focus.
Try using more than one app. Not every app on this list is ideal for every learner. Do some “app shopping” and test each option to find out which one works best for you. Since each app has different features, consider using two at once to reinforce your learning.
Supplement with an outside class. These apps work wonderfully on their own, but the added aid of a class, online course or other Japanese language learning method will only improve your chances of achieving fluency.
Check out apps with free trials. Free trials give you a good understanding of how certain apps work. As you learn, you may want to broaden your horizons and build a budget for learning.
Consume native Japanese content outside of your app study time. While you should definitely have an app specifically for studying vocabulary and grammar, you also need resources that provide you with native content you can immerse yourself in. I usually recommend FluentU for this, because you can use it to just watch native Japanese videos with bilingual subtitles or you can intensely study vocabulary and grammar.
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.
Learning Japanese has never been easier than it is today thanks to free apps. I suggest picking a few that catch your interest, testing them out and then deleting the ones that don’t work best for you until you’ve narrowed it down to your two or three favorites.
And One More Thing...
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.
