Learn Japanese through illustrated stories, native audio, shadowing, quizzes, and interactive reading tools.
Shinobi Japanese helps you build reading, kanji, vocabulary, grammar, listening, and speaking skills through content that feels immersive, practical, and actually enjoyable. Instead of memorizing isolated words and grammar points, you learn Japanese in context through stories, audio, news reading, and smart review tools.
At the core of Shinobi Japanese are illustrated stories designed to make Japanese reading more accessible and more engaging. Each story unfolds page by page with Japanese text, visuals, and English support, helping you understand the language naturally while staying motivated. Whether you are a beginner or already building toward higher-level reading, Shinobi helps you turn reading into steady progress.
Inside every story:
• Tap any word for translations, readings, explanations, and examples
• Full-page translation for quick comprehension
• Furigana toggle to adjust the challenge level
• Grammar explanations built directly into the reading experience
Shinobi Japanese is not just about reading. It also helps you improve listening and speaking through audio and shadowing practice.
Train your listening and speaking:
• Native Japanese audio for every story
• Slow audio mode for easier comprehension
• Shadowing practice to improve pronunciation, rhythm, and speaking confidence
Kanji and vocabulary are learned in context, not in isolation. This makes them easier to understand, recognize, and remember over time.
Build kanji and vocabulary in context:
• Learn kanji through meaningful sentences
• Save useful words as you read
• Review them later with SRS flashcards
• Reinforce understanding with quizzes
Shinobi also helps you keep learning beyond story mode.
More ways to learn:
• Read Japanese news
• Download stories for offline reading
• Track progress with XP, streaks, badges, and rewards
Shinobi Japanese brings together illustrated stories, native audio, shadowing, grammar support, kanji tools, quizzes, news reading, offline access, and smart vocabulary review in one place. Instead of splitting reading, listening, grammar, and vocabulary across different apps, Shinobi gives you one immersive learning experience that helps Japanese stick.
If you want a more effective and engaging way to learn Japanese, Shinobi Japanese helps you build real reading fluency through content you will actually want to come back to every day.
Download Shinobi Japanese and start reading your way to fluency.
By using this application, you agree to Apple's Standard EULA:
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
I’ve found Shinobi to be one of the most helpful tools in my acquisition of Japanese. It’s pretty challenging in the more advanced levels, but it’s worth the effort. I spend a lot of time shadowing each page so it would be nice if there was a repeat button for looping the automated voice that reads each page, without having to press the play button each time I want to hear it again.One slight quibble: I found that I raced through the beginner levels pretty quickly because there weren’t enough stories to keep me occupied until I had improved enough for the advanced levels. I probably would have repeated a lot of the stories I had already read, but because I didn’t want to break my daily streak, I had to keep going - and pretty quickly I was on the upper levels which take a lot longer to read through. So more stories in the beginner levels would have better. Fortunately, new stories are being added all the time. Overall. Highly Recommended.
Very helpful
Bass-trom-ben
I had been learning Japanese on my own for several years. This app has been very helpful in allowing me to actually read along and try to decipher the conversation as it goes. I listen once, and try to pick out what I recognize, then I read along and see what else I can figure out. The ability to click on words that I haven’t learned yet, allows me to figure out the rest, based on context. I really enjoy this app, and the test at the end gives me confidence that I have actually understood what I read. Great, simple stories at the beginning? And they appear to get more difficult as you progress, which is great. I also like that you can slow it down, to try to catch more of the listening, before needing to move on to the reading and vocab discovery. This is a great tool for any level. Reading and listening are super important, and the furigana above the Kanji allows you to familiarize yourself with those characters as well great app!
Comprehensive and engaging!
mamotes
I don’t write reviews. This may be my first ever. This app is perfect for me so far. It’s bite sized and great for personalized, controlled, and engaging learning. You can work on reading and listening at your own learning pace! There’s also kanji and vocab learning tools. It pretty much works on everything except writing and speaking. But input (as opposed to output) is most important for learning, especially early on. I know n5 grammar and vocab, and can read and write hiragana/katakana, so it’s a perfect next step for me. Best part of all is that all of the learning is actually in context (in this case, situated in stories with visuals) and teaches culture at the same time. Learning is often out of context (flash cards, textbooks, route memory work, classroom, etc). Culture and context are two of the most important ingredients for learning language correctly and it actually sticking in your memory. In summary, this app is great for input (listening/reading) and learning in context!!
Very helpful
Cal1-__-
Yesterday I started actually using this app and I feel like it’s really going to help improve my reading skills when it comes to Japanese. It’s very helpful in the sense that it explains every word in the story if you tap on them, and there’s a feature to bookmark the words you don’t know. From what I see, there are no adds but you do have to wait 12 hours to unlock a key which are used to unlock new stories. It’ll definitely improve your reading skills. Its good for anyone just starting out, however Im sure it can also be great for more advanced learners, seeing as they have levels all the way from: starter to expert. Overall, this is a very good app for anyone just starting Japanese, or anyone who just wants to get some reading practice in.
New onboarding experience
- New step "Can you read hiragana / katakana?" with a mini kana quiz to tailor your journey to your reading level.
- If you can't read kana yet, romaji is revealed right in place to help you.
- After signing up, a guided tutorial takes you straight into your first story.
- The intro word rain now mixes kanji, katakana and hiragana.
Streaks
- New commitment screen: after lighting your first flame, choose your streak goal.
- Smoother flame ignition animation, with a guided swipe gesture.
- iOS: complete redesign of the streak Live Activity on the lock screen, with the ninja mascot in the Dynamic Island.
- iOS: countdown Live Activity when your streak is about to be lost.
Exercises
- New exercises generated for every story: multiple choice, true/false and pronunciation.
- Choose between furigana and romaji for pronunciation display, including word by word.
Daily News
- A new Japanese news story published automatically every day.
- Double XP on the daily news for 24 hours.
- The news illustration now also appears on the reading page.
Profile and progression
- New "My Ranks" screen: visualize your progression through all rank badges.
- Display fixes on the rank card (clipped kanji, larger labels).
Credits
- New credit stock progress ring in the header, with a visible recharge mode.
- Fix: the credit is now properly spent when launching your first story.
Offline mode
- Fix: images of downloaded stories show up again in airplane mode (reader and story page).
Performance and comfort
- Faster word loading thanks to a local cache (less data used).
- Story audio served via CDN: faster and more reliable playback.
- Navigation: the system back gesture (iOS swipe, Android back button) can no longer interrupt a lesson by accident.
- Fixed story share links that didn't open the right screen.
- Android: display fixes for italic titles and clipped handwritten labels.
Version 1.4.4
The developer, Jeremy Pitault, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
Identifiers
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Contact Info
User Content
Identifiers
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
Supported Features
Larger Text
Dark Interface
Information
Seller
Shinobi LLC
Size
105.8 MB
Category
Education
Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.1 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 15.1 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 15.1 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 15.1 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
