Japanese immersion resources
Created: 20/03/2025 - Last updated: 01/09/2025
This is an ongoing list of Japanese media that I use for learning or immersion, divided by difficulty level. Don't hesitate to check the advanced section for immersion material even if you're a beginner! The division is a bit arbitrary anyway.
And always keep in mind that it's easier to gravitate towards media that you love - there's no point reading the news in Japanese every day if you hate reading the news, you need to find ways to make it fun and motivating!
Beginner level
This section contains mostly media created for children or Japanese language learners, and music in which the lyrics are quite clear.
TV shows
- ちいかわ / Chiikawa - 2022+ - 254 episodes
- 日本人の知らない日本語 / Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo / The Japanese the Japanese Don't Know - 2010 - 12 episodes
Video creators
- Shun on TikTok and YouTube: makes easy to follow videos with Japanese subtitles
- Taka Nihongo Dojo on TikTok: makes funny videos explaining some specificities of the Japanese language, he uses simple vocabulary and has Japanese and English subtitles
- OkkeiJapanese on TikTok: makes chill videos in simple language
Podcasts
News
Books
- Tadoku Graded Readers: a large selection of short stories, divided by levels. The free PDFs are linked in this reddit post.
- Satori Reader is another website providing stories of different levels in Japanese. I personally haven't tried it because it's too expensive for me, but I heard good things about it.
- Natively lists books of various levels in several languages, but is especially known for Japanese. It is not a website on which you can read books directly, but more a way to find books of your level.
Comics
- よつばと! / Yotsuba&! (2003-): popular kid's manga with short slice of life stories and quite easy vocabulary
- けいおん! / Keion! / K-On! (2007-2012): slice of life about four high school students creating a rock band
- ちいかわ / Chiikawa (2020-): read on the official twitter account or on this blog for the chronological order. Although these are short comics, the difficulty might come from the handwritten text, not always so easy to decipher for beginners - but that's also good practice!
Music
- This YouTube playlist my friend created, with 8 songs full of easy Japanese vocabulary
- BUMP OF CHICKEN