Learn Japanese · free to start
All of Japanese. Made in Japan.
Kana, kanji, grammar, reading, culture, and JLPT practice in one app. Reviews are capped and forecast, so what you learn actually sticks.
No sign-up for your first lesson. Same account on iPhone, Android, and the web.
Or get the app
- 8,400+
- vocabulary words
- 1,400+
- kanji, story included
- 630+
- grammar & phrase guides
- 5,300+
- JLPT questions
- 24
- full mock exams
- 57
- conversation scenarios
Counted from today’s curriculum — N5–N3 in depth, N2 opening — and growing every week.
Start at あ. Never wonder what’s next.
No decks to build, no curriculum to puzzle together yourself. The whole path is ordered for you — kana first, then greetings, then core grammar step by step, each lesson using only what came before. Plain-English guides explain the why behind every rule, and reviews are scheduled automatically as you go.
Already know some Japanese? A placement test finds your spot on the path — and you can move it whenever you like.
You can pass every lesson and still freeze when someone talks to you.
300 days of practice — and you ordered ramen by pointing.
A kanji app, a grammar app, an SRS deck, a tutor — four subscriptions, still no sentences.
A review queue in the hundreds. Motivation: gone.
You know the words. The sentence never comes out.
The problem isn’t you — it’s the setup. The path was scattered across four apps, and speaking was never on the syllabus. Here the whole path is one app, and speaking is on it from day one.
Learn it. Keep it. Say it — the same day.
Learn
Short lessons take you from kana to real sentences — 8,400+ words, 1,400+ kanji, and 630+ plain-spoken grammar guides, chosen because you'll say them, not just recognize them.
Review
One smart queue for everything you learn. Flip the card, grade yourself, and it's capped at 60 cards a day with a 7-day forecast, so reviews stay a five-minute habit — never a mountain.
Speak
Then you use it. Your AI partner builds conversations from only the words you've kept, remembers your last chat, and corrects you with reasons — a real conversation on day one, included with a free account.
The three feed each other: every word your reviews keep alive is a word your next conversation can use.
A few weeks in — an actual conversation
Small? Yes. Real? Completely. Your AI partner builds the conversation from the words you’ve already learned, stretching only a touch beyond — the i+1 rule good teachers use. On day one that’s a greeting; a few weeks in, it’s weekend plans, directions, and travel talk like this.
Reviews that never pile up.
If you’ve used a spaced-repetition app before, you know the dread: skip three days and 400 cards are waiting. We built the whole review system against that feeling.
A daily cap of 60Overflow is rescheduled and leveled out automatically — never dumped on you at once.
A 7-day forecastYou can see Thursday's load on Monday, before it surprises you.
A Known buttonAlready know a word? Say so, and it leaves your queue. It can always come back.
A redo lane for stubborn wordsThe ones you keep missing get focused re-practice — without touching the schedule.
Under the hood it runs on FSRS, the newest open spaced-repetition model. The science stays; the pile goes.
Flashcards with the whole word on the back.
Tap to flip, swipe to grade. The back carries everything you’d otherwise look up: the reading and pitch, an example sentence, a second sentence the word appears in, and the kanji inside it with their stories. Kanji get cards of their own, with stroke order and the words they live in.
Flip and swipeTap to turn the card, swipe right for Got it, left for Again. One tap undoes a slip.
Furigana that fades as you learnShow every reading, only the kanji you haven't learned yet, or none. Your choice, and it follows your progress.
A listen-only modeAuto-play reads the word, its reading, and the meaning while you walk. Nothing is graded.
Your own decksBuild a deck from any word in the curriculum, add a private hint, or paste a list of words you already know and mark them Known in one go.
Practice sets never touch your review schedule. Only the queue does the scheduling.
Say why you’re learning. The app takes it from there.
Pick a goal in onboarding and the app actually changes — what your home screen suggests, which scenarios you meet first, what tomorrow asks of you.
ConversationEvery lesson points at your next chat, not at a syllabus.
TravelHotel check-ins, train tickets, asking the way — the trip phrases move to the front.
JLPTA placement test, level-tagged practice, and 24 full mock exams pace your path.
WorkWorkplace Japanese and polite forms arrive early, not as an afterthought.
CultureQuizzes and readings on the Japan behind the language lead the way.
Meet Aoi & Mochi.
Aoi — the teacher
Aoi is the accuracy in the room. When she corrects your Japanese, she tells you what was off and why — without making you feel wrong. And when something has more than one answer, she says so instead of pretending it doesn’t.
Mochi — the moral support
A round white cat with limited enthusiasm and perfect attendance. He never explains grammar — that’s Aoi’s job. He mostly naps, and occasionally approves.
“Acceptable.” — Mochi, on your progress
Built in Tokyo.
Hi — we're a small team based in Japan. Spending time with travelers from abroad, we kept having the same thought: there's so much of this language and culture we wish we could pass on. That's why we built Ukiyoe Japanese — the whole path to real Japanese, in one app, shaped from the inside. We can't promise anything flashy; what we can promise is that we keep improving, and we are listening.
— The Ukiyoe Japanese Team
Every sentence, reading and question here is drafted with AI, then read and corrected by a person before it reaches you.
See how we check every questionEverything between zero and conversation.
Kana, stroke by strokeHiragana and katakana with stroke-order animations and quick quizzes.
1,400+ kanji, in contextKanji arrive attached to words you already know — each with a mnemonic story, not as isolated charts.
630+ grammar & phrase guidesShort, honest explanations of the why — from は vs. が to how to politely decline an invitation.
682 weak-point drill questions19 drills on the classic trouble spots — particles, counters, keigo, て-form — and every answer explains itself.
JLPT, built in5,300+ level-tagged questions and 24 full-length mock exams, timed and scored with a pass estimate — plus a placement test that finds where you stand.
Flashcards that remember for youVocabulary and kanji cards with the full word on the back, a listen-only auto-play, and decks of your own — scheduled by FSRS so they come back right on time.
Reading at your levelShort passages built from words you already know, with furigana you can toggle.
Culture, explained15 illustrated quiz packs on the Japan behind the language — regions, food, everyday life.
A partner that remembersPronunciation scoring, corrections with reasons, session recaps — and an AI partner who recalls your last conversation.
Say it out loudEveryday phrases, spoken: repeat the line, then say it with half hidden, then all of it, until it comes out on its own.
A kind communityShare progress and ask questions. Friendly corrections are the house rule.
Learn in a circleA small private group with a six-letter invite code, a weekly goal, and a wall where you see who studied today.
One round a day — the same round as the whole world.
Free daily quizzes on the Japan behind the language — world heritage, castles, temples, the fish kanji on a sushi-shop teacup, even a daily ukiyo-e print to identify. No account, no setup: everyone on Earth gets the same round, once a day.
Today's boardYour score lands on the day's board — see where you stand among everyone who played the same round.
A play streakCome back tomorrow and it grows. A calendar keeps the record.
Challenge a friendSend today's round with your run attached, and see if they can match it.
And when a quiz teaches you a word you want to keep, the lessons are one tap away.Open the Play hub →
Learn the language of a place worth visiting.
Culture quizzes and reading passages come illustrated in modern ukiyo-e — Japan drawn in its own woodblock language, phones and all. From Kyoto’s temples to a Tokyo green light, the places you’ll study are the places you’ll stand in.
Free to start. Pro when you want more.
Kana, grammar guides, reading, culture, your reviews (due cards and missed questions) and Play are free and never count toward the daily allowance. Lessons, kanji sets, vocabulary and kanji quizzes, drills and JLPT practice come with that allowance: 10 questions a day without an account, and 20 a day with a free account (5 right in a row earns one back); Ukiyoe Pro removes the cap. A free account also adds 5 AI conversation messages a day and your first JLPT mock exam. Pro also lifts the limits on the features that cost us money per use; Pro Plus is for talking every day. We will never silently start charging you.
$0
- Lessons, kanji sets, quizzes, drills & JLPT practice10 a day without an account · 20 a day with a free account
- Kana, grammar guides, reading, culture, your reviews and PlayAlways free, never counted
- JLPT mock examsYour first mock
- AI conversation messages5 a day
- Roleplay scenes1 to try
- Pronunciation scores5 to try
$4.17
$4.17 a month, $49.99 a year
- Lessons, kanji sets, quizzes, drills & JLPT practiceUnlimited
- Kana, grammar guides, reading, culture, your reviews and PlayAlways free, never counted
- JLPT mock examsAll, with scoring
- AI conversation messages30 a day
- Roleplay scenes1 a day, saved to your account
- Pronunciation scoresDaily allowance
$8.33
$8.33 a month, $99.99 a year
- Lessons, kanji sets, quizzes, drills & JLPT practiceUnlimited
- Kana, grammar guides, reading, culture, your reviews and PlayAlways free, never counted
- JLPT mock examsAll, with scoring
- AI conversation messages30 a day
- Roleplay scenesUp to 5 a day, with transcript export
- Pronunciation scoresDouble the daily allowance
Founding price. $6 a month is our launch price. It stays yours as long as you keep the plan.
14-day refund. Write to us within 14 days of your first payment for a full refund.
We will never silently start charging you.
Honest answers.
How is Ukiyoe Japanese different from other language apps?
Most apps are great habit machines, and we share their respect for small daily lessons. The difference is the destination: every feature here — kana, kanji, grammar, JLPT practice, reviews — feeds an AI conversation partner that uses only the words you've learned. You don't finish a course; you start talking.
Do I still need separate kanji, grammar, and flashcard apps?
You can use them together, but you shouldn't have to. Kanji with mnemonics, grammar guides with built-in review, and vocabulary SRS all live here — one queue instead of three, and the queue is capped so it never buries you.
How much time does it take per day?
Five minutes covers your reviews on most days — the daily cap of 60 keeps that honest even after a break. A lesson plus a short conversation fits in about fifteen.
Will it prepare me for the JLPT?
N5–N3 are covered in depth today — 5,300+ level-tagged questions and 24 full-length mock exams that mirror the official sections, time limits, and sectional pass marks — with N2 now opening. A placement test tells you where to start.
Why not just talk to a general AI chatbot?
A general chatbot doesn't know your level, so it speaks past you. Your partner here knows exactly which words you've learned — it holds the conversation inside them, corrects you with reasons, and remembers last time. That's the difference between being answered and being taught.
Is it really free?
Yes. Kana, grammar guides, reading, culture, your reviews (due cards and missed questions) and Play are free at every level and never count toward the daily allowance. Lessons, kanji sets, vocabulary and kanji quizzes, drills and JLPT practice come with that allowance: 10 questions a day without an account, 20 a day with a free account, and 5 right in a row earns one back. The listening drill isn't a review, so it counts too. AI conversation and pronunciation scoring cost us money per use, so the free plan has fair daily limits on those as well. Ukiyoe Pro ($6/month at the founding member price, or $49.99/year) removes the practice allowance and raises AI conversation to 30 messages a day, and Pro Plus ($12/month founding, or $99.99/year) adds up to 5 roleplay scenes a day. We will never silently start charging you. A note from October 2026: we rewrote this answer to spell out exactly what counts. Kana and your reviews used to count toward the allowance; they no longer do. Without an account you used to get 20 questions in total; it's now 10 every day.
Ready to experience the real Japan — in Japanese?
Five minutes a day is enough to get you there.