Travel
Station names, convenience-store buttons, and restaurant tickets are in Japanese. Tourist English exists in Kyoto and central Tokyo and drops off in residential neighbourhoods.
- Speakers
- About 125 million, almost all in Japan
- Where it sits
- Official language of Japan
- In the app
- Kana, readings, ja-JP audio
どこで使われるか
Japanese is the language of Japan. It is not widely official anywhere else. There are heritage communities in Brazil, Peru, and Hawaii, leftover from older migration, but a trip to use the language means Japan. Okinawa has Ryukyuan languages alongside Japanese; Hokkaido has Ainu as a recognized indigenous language. What you learn here is standard Japanese, the language of national TV and of Tokyo. Kansai speech in Osaka and Kyoto is understandable and noticeably different.
- JapanOfficial. The place you will actually use the language end to end.
- Brazil & PeruOlder nikkei communities. Japanese at home for some families, Portuguese or Spanish in public.
- Hawaii & the US West CoastHeritage speakers. Not a substitute for using the language in Japan.
何の役に立つか
Work
Manufacturing, games, research labs, and firms that still run internal meetings in Japanese.
Culture
Film, manga, and music are easier when you can read a menu and follow speech that subtitles flatten.
実際に使う都市
Tokyo is the default. Kansai is the useful second accent. Smaller cities are where English stops covering the errand.
Tokyo
Japan
Yamanote line, konbini, office Japanese. Closest to the standard the app reads.
Kyoto
Japan
Tourism and temples, then neighbourhoods where Japanese is the only language on the ticket machine.
Osaka
Japan
Kansai Japanese. Friendlier street tone, different sentence endings. Still Japanese.
Fukuoka
Japan
Kyushu. A size that is easier than Tokyo, with less English on the side streets.
Sapporo
Japan
Hokkaido. Winter city, clear standard Japanese, distance from the Kansai/Tokyo split.
Hiroshima
Japan
West Honshu. Everyday Japanese without Tokyo's tourist density.
Nara
Japan
Smaller than Kyoto, same region. A quieter place to try the language between temple visits.
Kanazawa
Japan
Sea of Japan side. Few visitors relative to Kyoto; Japanese does more of the work.
アプリが読む発音
Audio is ja-JP. We do not claim JLPT prep. Kana come first; kanji are part of the writing system and are not faked as fully taught on this page.
だれ向けか
日本語が母語でない人向け。JLPT 対策だとは言いません。
アプリの中
日本語を学習言語に選びます。発音は ja-JP。レッスンは CEFR で増えます。このページは単元表を作りません。
いくつかの単語
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| こんにちは | Konnichiwa | Hello |
| はじめまして | Hajimemashite | Nice to meet you |
| お元気ですか | Ogenki desu ka | How are you? |
| 私の名前は... | Watashi no namae wa... | My name is... |
