The best free Japanese learning resources by study job

The best free Japanese resources form a small system, not a folder of bookmarks. This fits learners who want a course, lookup, review, reading, and audio without paying. The main limit is sequence: free tools do not agree on what comes next. Start with Irodori, Tae Kim, and Jisho, then add one input source after the course habit holds.

The free stack

Job	Resource	Use it for	Do not ask it to do
Course sequence	Irodori	Practical lessons with audio	Behave like a streak game
Grammar explanation	Tae Kim	Look up a pattern or follow a grammar path	Schedule retrieval
Dictionary	Jisho	Search a blocking word or kanji	Translate whole paragraphs
Optional review	Renshuu	Practice selected vocabulary, kanji, and grammar	Run every available lesson at once
Easy reading	Tadoku	Finish graded pages	Replace a beginner course
Listen-only input	Nihongo con Teppei	Hear short beginner Japanese often	Explain every line in English
Text plus audio	NHK News Web Easy	Read and hear a short current article	Be comfortable on the first attempt

Start with the first three jobs. Add reading and listening after the course habit exists. Add review only when you have material worth remembering.

Irodori owns the sequence

Irodori is the spine because it chooses lessons and supplies audio. It is published by the Japan Foundation and focuses on practical life in Japan.

Do one lesson chunk at a time. If the format feels too much like a workbook, Renshuu can own the sequence instead. Do not run both as full courses.

Tae Kim explains what the course leaves thin

Tae Kim is a free grammar guide with beginner through advanced sections. Use it to clarify a pattern you met in the course or in reading.

Reading it cover to cover is optional. Grammar knowledge becomes useful when the pattern appears in a sentence you care about.

Jisho is enough dictionary for the start

Jisho is the low-friction search box. Look up the word that blocks the sentence, then return to the sentence. A beginner does not need three dictionary apps.

Later, Yomitan can add hover lookup to real web pages. That is an upgrade for reading volume, not a day-one requirement.

Renshuu can hold review without Anki setup

Renshuu offers prepared lessons and varied practice alongside its dictionaries. It is useful when you want a review loop without designing Anki cards.

Keep new lessons modest. A free queue can still consume the entire study window. The SRS workload guide applies regardless of price.

Tadoku and NHK make reading finishable

Tadoku provides graded reading designed around extensive reading. NHK News Web Easy offers short simplified news with reading support and audio.

Choose Tadoku when a complete easy story is the goal. Choose NHK when a short daily article is more motivating. Finishing one source beats opening both.

Nihongo con Teppei puts audio into ordinary time

Nihongo con Teppei publishes frequent short beginner podcast episodes. Use it for a commute or walk when a screen will not happen.

Listen once without stopping. Replay only if the episode was close enough to follow. If it was noise, step down to structured audio in Irodori.

When paying becomes rational

Pay only after the free routine exposes a stable bottleneck:

• A tutor marketplace when you need scheduled speaking correction.
• A curated reader when free pages are too steep or too scattered.
• A managed kanji sequence when choosing the order keeps blocking you.
• An app subscription when its exact lesson format has already passed a free trial.

The purchase should replace friction in an existing week. It should not create a new study identity. For a small five-job starter system, use Japanese resources for beginners.