Japango is a free online magazine for learning practical Japanese, written and reviewed by professional Japanese teachers. Every article answers one real question that learners face in Japan, in restaurants, at stations, in offices, and in daily life, and gives the phrase three ways: Japanese with furigana, romaji, and plain English. New answers are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the library has grown past 600 of them.
What Japango is
Japango is not a textbook and not a course. It is a library of short question-and-answer articles, each built around one specific situation: a traveler who wants to ask permission before taking a photo, a guest who would rather have warm water than iced, an office worker unsure how polite an email needs to be. The answer gives you the exact phrase, explains in plain English why it works, and stops there. You should be able to absorb the heart of any answer in under a minute.
You will not find grammar jargon in the explanations. Instead of naming forms, we tell you where a word comes from and what it does, the way a teacher explains things in a classroom: “totte comes from the verb torimasu, to take.” That is how every answer here reads.
How every answer is made
Every article goes through the same four steps before it reaches you.
- A professional Japanese teacher writes it. Topics are questions learners really face in Japan, from the restaurant counter to the station platform to a first office email, and they are chosen by our teaching team. The answer is written the way a teacher would explain it in person: the phrase first, then the reason it works.
- A senior teacher reviews the language. A second teacher, working independently, checks the kanji, the furigana, the romaji, the level of politeness, and whether the phrasing is what people in Japan actually say.
- A separate reviewer checks the facts. Claims about places, customs, history, and how things work in Japan are verified by a reviewer whose only job is accuracy.
- A copy editor makes the final pass. Formatting, consistency, and readability get one last check.
Nothing is published until every review is approved. If any reviewer says no, the article goes back to the writer.
What you’ll find here
Every phrase on Japango comes three ways, so you can use it whether or not you read Japanese yet:
写真を撮ってもいいですか。
Shashin o tottemo iidesuka?
Can I take a picture?
The Japanese line carries furigana so you can learn the characters, the romaji line lets you say the phrase out loud today, and the English line tells you exactly what you are saying. Articles are organized into four main categories:
- Travel: restaurants, shops, stations, hotels, and the small requests that make a trip smoother.
- Daily: life in Japan beyond the tourist route, from neighbors and clinics to everyday small talk.
- Business: emails, meetings, phone calls, and the politeness choices that matter at work.
- Basic: the building blocks of the language, from hiragana to the patterns behind everyday sentences.
Who Japango is for
Japango is written for beginners and lower-intermediate learners: travelers preparing for a trip, people who have just moved to Japan for work or study, and anyone who keeps hearing a phrase in dramas or anime and wants to know what it really means. You do not need to read a single Japanese character to start. If you can read romaji, you can use every phrase on the site.
Start with the Q&A archive and pick any question that sounds like yours. A minute from now you will have the phrase, understand why it works, and be ready to use it.