Japanese Graded Readers

Enjoy reading Japanese without a dictionary

Graded readers are books suitable for people who want to learn a language. They use a limited set of grammatical rules and vocabulary. Studies have shown that people who read graded readers improve their reading skills but also other aspects of language learning.

See all Japanese Graded Readers books

Why use Japanese Graded Readers?

There are many advantages to reading graded readers to practice your Japanese. We have listed several of them below.

Learn new vocabulary

Reading graded readers will allow you to learn vocabulary faster. The repetition of the new vocabulary words allows you to understand the meaning of these words with the context.

Improve grammar

By integrating new grammatical concepts periodically, graded readers are a perfect tool for discovering new grammar rules. It helps readers build up to native-level materials.

Audio narration

Some series use native-Japanese voice talents to make the story memorable while demonstrating proper pronunciation.

Contextual illustrations

New vocabulary and difficult concepts are illustrated with artworks. These illustrations help the reader understand what he reads without having to use a dictionary.

Many other benefits

They improve reading speed, reading fluency, help develop and enrich already known vocabulary, and improve the ability to move from working with words to working with ideas when reading.

Japanese Graded Readers app
by White Rabbit Press

Thanks to White Rabbit Press, you can now read your Japanese graded readers on-the-go. The new White Rabbit app allows you to read graded readers on your mobile or tablet. It is available for Android and iOS.

Download on App Store

Download on Android

Graded readers series in Japanese

There are several collections of graded readers in Japanese. These series all offer several levels suitable for beginners and people with intermediate level in Japanese. The books will accompany you throughout your Japanese learning process and will allow you to progress more quickly.

Japanese Graded Readers by ASK

ASK's Japanese Graded Readers series is the most comprehensive on the market. You will find 15 volumes divided into 5 levels. This series is largely regarded as the best graded readers on the market and continue to be one of our best sellers!

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Stories You Can Read Smoothly

These books are unique in that each contains a collection of both old and modern tales, many penned by major contemporary authors in Japan. All books in this series are illustrated by Yoshiyuki Momose, one of the animators for Mononoke Hime and Studio Ghibli.

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Gakken Graded Readers

Gakken Publishing has a very large selection of graded readers that includes six different series. Each series is broken down into 1st through 6th grade levels so that you're able to continuously level up and have a variety of stories to choose from!

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Nihongo Tadoku Books

Reading can be tough if you are beginner and only know few words and little grammar. There is just too much yet to learn to be able to read a text fluently. Or is there? Not if you use the right resources: Nihongo Tadoku Books will help you read smoothly!

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Readers reviews

“These stories are easy to read, interesting and will help boost your comprehension of written Japanese. Some are fairy tales, others give you snippets of Japanese culture.”

James

“These stories are great to enlarge your vocabulary e.g. for JLPT N4 preparation. Thanks to furigana, they are easy to read and the length of each story is well adapted.”

Anna

“The books are very entertaining, informative and reinforce your learning of new vocabulary. Since I love to read, they are a welcome diversion to the other methods of studying.”

Jenny

“One of the hardest things about learning Japanese at times is finding level-appropriate material to study. If it's too hard and you get discouraged and if it's too easy you don't gain much from it. The graded readers series makes it easy to pick some reading material which is much more tailored to what a learner needs, particularly when studying for the JLPT.”

Sarah