Japanese Extensive Reading (ER)

“We have students with more varied interests, learning goals, first languages, and study abroad experiences” *

To accomodate this student diversity the University of Notre Dame in the US has created Japanese ER stand alone courses. The prerequisite is one semester of a regular Japanese course and classes are approx 100 minutes per week for the full semester. Course credits are gained for attendance, journals, book lists, and meeting deadlines on time. Content and quality of work are not graded. ER courses are low pressure, enjoyable courses attractive to students with a heavy study load such as a double major.

Links

Tadoku.org has many free Japanese books from Level 0 (absolute beginner) to Level 4. It is a little difficult to find the books so here is a link to help you. Click on the link and tick the ‘free books’ box in the ‘Book Search’ , then click the ‘Search’ button and you will be able to read, or download the pdf files of up to 50 books. Here is the link: https://tadoku.org/japanese/book-search/?series=010

Also by tadoku.org, there is a daily tweet written in simple Japanese with furigana. Common topics include current events and Japanese culture. This is a wonderful way to get your busy students reading a little each day. https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/twitter-en/

The Japanese Graded Reader Project Group has a collection of 24 graded readers across eight levels on their website. Their reading materials are generally longer than usual, with some books more than 30,000 characters long! https://jgrpg-sakura.com/

Yomimono ippai is a project by Mitsue Tabata Sandom, Massey University Auckland Campus. It is a website for students who want to improve their Japanese through reading. Students can write their own stories and submit them to the site. Here is the link: 17408ui.sakura.ne.jp/tatsum/project/Yomimono/Yomimono-ippai/index.html

Gotokuhon is a site to watch. Click on レベル別読み物. There is a good selection of Level 0 and Level 1 books but nothing yet on Levels 3 and 4. Here is the link: https://nihongotokuhon.jimdo.com/

The Sendai International Japanese School has a small collection of graded readers which give insights into the Sendai and Kumamoto regions. It also has two low level general graded readers that can be downloaded for free. https://www.sjls.ac.jp/book/index.html

The Japan Foundation Institute in Kansai has about 25 graded readers that can be downloaded for free covering a variety of topics. https://kansai.jpf.go.jp/clip/yomyom/index.html

USC Dornsife also has beginner level books. The Level 2 books are a good length, easy to read, and interesting. Here is the link: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ealc/tadoku/

A new organisation writing graded reading material is Extensive Reading in Japanese. They have a collection of essays on their site that are around the intermediate level. https://tadoku.info/

Two other American universities also put up student created materials – Notre Dame University has a large collection organised by semester. Some projects are videos or games instead of books, but there is still a lot of material to be enjoyed! https://libguides.library.nd.edu/ealj-er/projects Sophia Smith College has a smaller collection than Notre Dame, but there’re a good selection of books at each level. https://sophia.smith.edu/japanese-book-review/stories-by-levels/

*Hanabusa, N; &Juhn, Hye-Jin. Proceedings of the Fourth World Congress on Extensive Reading. Japanese Extensive Reading Courses at a US University: Meaning-focused Input and Output Facilitated by a Japanese Instructor-Librarian Team

There are also some sources of easier but ungraded reading texts in Japanese.

Matcha Japanese Tourism magazine has an “easy Japanese” version with furigana, and a lot of articles cover Japanese history, culture, regional specialty foods, and regional activities. It has a wealth of material which is attractively photographed and laid out. https://matcha-jp.com/easy

NHK has an easier version of its main newspaper articles. Several new stories are put up each day. You can toggle furigana on and off, and even listen to the article read out loud. There is a link to the unsimplified version, for students looking for a challenge. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/

The largest collection of reading materials is EhonNavi. There are 17 million books listed on the site, but you can only read 1500 for free. You need to sign up to be able to read, and the website is only in Japanese. You have to finish the book in one sitting, because you can only read each book once. You can search for books by age range. A note of caution- If you join the site will send you many emails and it is difficult to unsubscribe from the service. https://www.ehonnavi.net/

Reviews

This is a story with a surprise ending. It uses a good range of basic vocabulary and informal expressions. dornsife.usc.edu