Yokoso

Japanese for the life you're actually living in Japan

Yokoso (ようこそ — "welcome") is a free Japanese-learning app built around one idea: the Japanese that matters first is the Japanese around you. Shop doors, price tags, station signs, the phrase that gets the check. Learn that, and the country starts making sense in weeks, not years.

Open Yokoso — it's free Download on the App Store

What makes it different

No placement test. Answer questions from minute one. The app probes what you already know, skips it, and never makes you sit through a lesson on something you've already learned elsewhere.
Real-world material. The signs on actual shop doors (営業中, 準備中), prices the way registers say them, the phrases that work at any counter in the country.
Science, not streaks. Spaced repetition tuned to a measured retention target, memory hooks you can rewrite in your own words, and grammar the app names only after you've already used it correctly.
Honest progress. JLPT coverage tracked as facts, and milestones on real scales — ILR, CEFR, college-course equivalence — with field notes on why learning feels the way it does.
It does not run out. The web app now covers vocabulary and kanji from N5 through N1: 8,959 items, of which 2,056 are kanji, or about 96 percent of the jouyou set. No learning content is locked and no level gates another, so the app serves what you are ready for wherever you start. (the levels, band by band)
Bring your history. WaniKani import carries your kanji progress over — nothing restarts. (Bunpro import is paused while Bunpro's public API is unavailable.)

Free forever — actually

Every learning feature is free, permanently. No ads, no streak guilt, no locked lessons, no "premium" tier. Optional supporter contributions exist for people who want development to continue. Every learning feature stays free either way; supporters get the optional Glass look, a cosmetic thank-you and the only thing supporting changes.

How that actually works, where the money goes, and the two free ways to help that matter just as much: supporting Yokoso, explained.

Private by default

Your progress lives on your device. No ads. No data sales. No third-party trackers. If you turn on sync, your synced learning activity also helps us understand how Yokoso is used, in aggregate, to improve it. Optional features do involve named companies, and only when you turn them on: sync and sign-in store your progress with Supabase, a WaniKani import talks to WaniKani, web supporter payments go through Stripe and iPhone-app payments through Apple. The privacy policy names all of them and is still short.

Frequently asked

Is there an iPhone app? Yes — Yokoso is on the App Store, and the web version works on anything with a browser, offline included. They are the same app; the store copy updates once App Store review clears, so new material usually reaches the web first. The install guide explains that and shows how to put the web app on your home screen.

I already know some Japanese. Will it waste my time? No — that's the core design. Claimed knowledge is verified instead of re-taught, and anything you demonstrate is skipped.

Does it prepare me for the JLPT? It tracks coverage honestly across every band the web app carries: N5, N4, N3, N2 and N1. Coverage and readiness are different numbers, and Yokoso shows both. It is not an official JLPT product and does not replace mock exams.

Who builds it? One person living in Aomori, Japan, learning the language the same way you are. Questions: support.