Which Japanese graded readers are there, and what levels do they use?

The main Japanese graded reader series come from one source. NPO Tadoku Supporters (NPO多言語多読 in Japanese), a not-for-profit group that has promoted tadoku, extensive reading, since 2002, wrote or supervised both of the main paid series and publishes its own books, free and paid. That is why the series share one level scale. The NPO says it has made 134 books at six levels in total.

Two things matter when choosing. Taishukan is the only one of the paid series with Level 5 books, and its title list has just two of them, both in vol. 6. And neither paid series sells single print books, so in print a set is the smallest purchase; the free books are the way to try a level before buying.

The levels also change how the page looks. Level 0 is printed left to right, and from Level 1 the text runs top to bottom in vertical lines. Pictures carry the story at Levels Start and 0 and become fewer from Level 3. Readings in furigana are printed above every kanji up to Level 4. At Level 5 the kanji taught in the first two years of Japanese primary school lose them. Katakana words have readings too at the lower levels, but the two charts disagree on where they stop: Taishukan prints them up to Level 2, the NPO’s chart drops them at Level 4.

The likely reason is simple: Ask’s books stop at Level 4, so its chart describes the stories it actually publishes, while the NPO’s chart covers every series. Neither publisher explains the difference. In practice it means a Level 4 book from Ask can be shorter than one from Taishukan, and the JLPT label on the box is a rough guide, not a test result.

Yes, and they use the same level scale as the paid series. NPO Tadoku Supporters publishes free books at every level from Start to 5, to read in the browser, download as PDF and print, or watch on YouTube; some come with audio. The Japan Foundation, Sydney, which keeps a list of free Tadoku materials, counts 132 of the NPO’s free e-books across Levels 0 to 5.

The licence is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You may share links, and print or share the PDFs for personal study or for tadoku classes, crediting NPO多言語多読. You may not change the books, add translations or tests, or sell them.

• Tadoku Nihongo Gakushū Tokuhon (多読 日本語学習読本), by a teacher at a school for deaf children: 21 titles as PDF, Levels 0 to 2, by the Japan Foundation, Sydney’s count.
• Yomimono Ippai (読みものいっぱい): 151 titles as PDF, Levels 1 to 3, by the same count.
• Hiragana Mini Books and Katakana Mini Books, listed by the NPO at the Start level, for learning the two scripts.
• Extra-Ordinary Readers from Oita, by teachers in Oita Prefecture, Levels 2 to 4, with audio.
• For Level 5: TONGARI BOOKS, original stories by a member of the NPO; Sakura Tadoku Lab (さくら多読ラボ), free with registration and graded on its own eight levels, A to H; and Kurosio Publishers’ 日本語多読道場, partly by subscription, with new titles free for four weeks.

For news rather than stories, NHK’s NEWS WEB EASY rewrites NHK news in easy Japanese, with furigana, a pop-up dictionary and audio. It has no Tadoku level. How the free sources for Spanish, French, German and Italian compare is on Free graded readers like Tadoku for other languages.

The publishers give JLPT levels only. By the NPO’s chart, Level 1 is N5, Level 2 is N4, Level 3 is N3, Level 4 is N3 to N2 and Level 5 is N2 to N1; Ask labels its Level 4 as N2. In the NPO’s and Ask’s charts, Levels Start and 0 have no JLPT label; Taishukan puts Level 0 under N5 with Level 1 and goes no higher than N2. Taishukan says its JLPT column follows the JLPT’s own descriptions of what each level can do. None of the three publishers gives a CEFR level for any book.

The JLPT says the CEFR level is for reference and covers only language knowledge and reception, reading and listening; it says nothing about speaking or writing. Putting the two charts side by side gives a rough idea, but it is our arithmetic, not a level any publisher has set or tested, and a single JLPT level can span two CEFR levels.

Start at Level Start or Level 0, even if you have finished a first course. Furigana sit above every kanji at these levels, so kana are enough; the pictures carry most of the story; and Level 0 is printed left to right. The Japan Foundation, Sydney describes Level 0 as for learners who have just learned to read hiragana and katakana, and the NPO advises even intermediate learners who have never read a whole book in Japanese to begin at the easiest level.