Yasashii Nihongo and other reading resources

How’s your Japanese reading proficiency? I’m not the best reader of Japanese texts as my Japanese language education is spotty. I took a first-year university course decades ago, dropped in on Japanese language classes at international centers, and these days I use apps on my phone as often as possible to acquire vocabulary and kanji while reviewing grammar.

I managed to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test at N2, but N1 intimidates me. I simply do not read enough to pull me up to that level.

大学生活, daigaku seikatsu, university life, photo Engin Akyurt

Yasashii Nihongo

While reading up on the services provided by international centers, I read a lot in English, but I also encountered many webpages in 優しい日本語, yasashii Nihongo, easy Japanese. It’s a version of Japanese using simple expressions, fewer sentence structures, and providing furigana readings for kanji characters. The impulse to communicate in a simplified way arose after the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the Chuetsu Earthquake. In those disasters, the ratio of fatalities of foreign residents was higher than that of Japanese people who could read, and heed the disaster response.

Your survival in a catastrophe can hinge on how much you can comprehend. And you’re drinking from a firehouse of emergency notices. Yasashii Nihongo can save your life.

Some yasashii Nihongo resources

To read a lot and fast, I recommend a few news websites that post current news in yasashii Nihongo. Check out Mainichi and NHK for their simplified news posts.

In a pinch, you can push a website’s URL through Hirahira no Megane, a website that inserts 振り仮名, furigana, the kana glossing for kanji-laden texts. I tried it with news websites and it works like a charm.

Do you read Japanese news and current events? Do you have some advice on how to read more? Some suggestions for reading tools?