10 Great Japanese iPhone/iPad apps
I switched my provider to Softbank from AU at the start of this month so that I could finally get on the iPhone bandwagon that I had been hearing so much about. I knew it would be a cool device but it has so far exceeded every single expectation I held for it. I run down my battery into the 20-30% range everyday from almost constant use (I even use it as an alarm clock at night) and have in two short weeks already spilled over to 6 pages of apps (even though I turned some off with BossPrefs). But, enough fanboy rant… you came here to read about apps.
Like many foreigners in Japan, my credit card’s billing address is in my home country (US), so I’m not able to access the Japanese app store. Well, not without some fiddling around, at least (check out Wide Island View’s article: How to access Japan-only apps for more info…). In any case I haven’t gotten around to trying to access the Japanese app store yet, so for this article I’ll keep things simple: all these apps can be downloaded from the US app store.
1. 乗換案内 (Norikae Annai)
Developer: Jorudan Co., Ltd.
Price: FREE
App Store: Get Norikae Annai at the iTunes store
This one’s a no-brainer. Next to phone calls and email, finding train times is one of the most important functions that a mobile device in Japan needs to be able to execute. While on most traditional Japanese phones this is achieved by bookmarking the site, then visiting it whenever you need information, this iPhone application streamlines the process.
Screenshots
Note: Good train-finding services in Japan are only available in Japanese. This app is not an exception.
If you’re a traveler just visiting Tokyo for a few days, try the English-capable app Tokyo Underground for navigating around inner Tokyo (it’s more of a guide than a train finder). However I can’t offer any detailed opinion on it since I haven’t tried it (I don’t live in Tokyo).
2. QR コード (QR Code)
Developer: Ryo Shimizu
Price: FREE (Pay-version upgrade $0.99)
App Store: Get QR Code at the iTunes store
Japan has two mobile traditions that other countries have yet to really pick up on. One is infrared (赤外線) data transfer (for swapping contact information quickly) and the other is QR codes. While the iPhone doesn’t have infrared capabilities, you can get this app which will whip up a QR Code containing your contact information for someone with a traditional Japanese mobile phone to scan (don’t worry, Japanese mobile phones are light-years ahead of current iPhone apps for being able to successfully decode QRs).
While primarily useful for giving your contact information, you may also want to read some QR data from time to time and my experience (I’ve tried about 5 different apps) is that this app also offers the most reliable reader. See the screenshots below for proof that it works.
Screenshots
The paid version of this app offers you the ability to do stuff with the information read from a QR code. For example, if it reads someone’s contact info, you’ll have the option to add that to your address book… or if the QR code contains a web URL, you’ll be able to jump to the URL automatically. In the free version it just shows you the raw data. Since I use the app primarily to give my contact info to others, I haven’t upgraded yet.
3. 顔文字挿入 (FaceMail)
Developer: n1system ltd.
Price: FREE (Pay-version upgrade $3.99)
App Store: Get FaceMail Free at the iTunes store
＼(^o^)／ わぁいわぁい！！iPhoneで顔文字が使える～！
(゜∀゜) え？何・・・？ (￣□￣;)!! 3.99ドル！！！高ぇ。
(●д●) 困っちゃうな・・・。
If you like to use Japanese kaomoji (faces made using various characters), then this is the app for you. You start drafting an email with this app and can insert various faces from different categories, and then either copy and paste them into another app or send your email draft with faces to your regular email app to finish.
Screenshots
You get access to some faces (such as the ones I used above) for free, but a much bigger selection with the pay version and you can even add your own custom faces. I really want this app but I’m not sure yet if I want it enough to pay $4 for it. Might wait for it to go on sale or something… hmmm…
4. らじおたっち (LadioTouch)
Developer: Kawauso.com
Price: FREE
App Store: Get LadioTouch at the iTunes store
It’s no Pandora but at least this Japanese internet radio app doesn’t give me any problems because of my region. (If anyone knows of a better Japanese internet radio app, please let me know)
Screenshots
I’m not an expert on internet radio so this comparison might be completely wrong… but the way it works reminds me of how shoutcast radio stations felt like 8 years ago or so. You can’t skip songs, and you might have to check through a few channels before you get a decent signal and something that is actually playing music rather than talk radio. Although on the other hand Japanese talk radio could be a good way to improve your Japanese…
I wonder if this app works outside Japan?
5. SkyBook
Developer: aill
Price: $3.99
App Store: Get SkyBook at the iTunes store
What you say?! 7000 Japanese classic short stories and novels by authors like Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Natsume Soseki, Dasai Osamu and Mori Ougai?! On iPhone?! YES, please!!
This app allows you to search and download from a huge collection of free (= copyright expired or copyright released by author) fiction and non-fiction titles at Japan’s Aozora Bunko (the 7000 titles are not automatically available to you for offline reading, you have to download them from within the app). But in fact what SkyBook does is not what sets it apart, as there are a number of apps that access the same collection in the same way (some for free). The beauty of this app is how well organized and presented it is. Books you download get placed on a nice slide-able bookshelf and you get great options for customizing your view (although I like the default settings best). Searching Aozora with SkyBook is also much less painstaking than with some of the other apps.
Screenshots
As a bonus tip, if you come across a word you don’t know or can’t read, touch it for two seconds to open up a search dialog for the word that goes to Goo’s dictionary (= the dictionary.com of Japan). You can look up the word quickly and then go right back to reading without ever closing the app, beautiful! This app is a must-have among must-haves for anyone with sufficient Japanese reading skill.
6. 大辞林 (Daijirin)
Developer: MONOKAKIDO Co., Ltd.
Price: $21.99
App Store: Get Daijirin at the iTunes store
This app gives me an otaku-gasm every time I open it. For those of you who don’t know… Daijirin is kind of like the Webster’s or the Oxford dictionary of Japanese; it is arguably the single-most defining modern Jap-Jap dictionary there is, a truly massive tribute to the Japanese language, and this app pulls everything together perfectly for the iPhone.
Get this, all 238,000+ entries in the dictionary are laid out in a beautiful grid which you can scroll both horizontally and vertically. You can literally scan word to word across the whole language! Now that alone would be enough to keep me entertained for hours, but the dictionary has also added illustrations for many popular entries, more entries than were in the most recent print edition and a bookmark and history function to help you build your next vocabulary list. The cherry on top is that you can also select any word within a definition to jump to the definition for that word.
Screenshots
Yes, it is Japanese only, made by and for Japanese people. It may look expensive compared to most other apps, but to have this on your iPhone is worth several times what they’re asking.
Now all we need is the Daikanwa for iPhone…
7. Imiwa?
Developer: Pierre-Phi di Costanzo
Price: FREE
App Store: Get Imiwa? at the iTunes store
While it’s not the monster dictionary that Daijirin is, “Imiwa?” is an amazing feat in and of itself. This Japanese-English iPhone app is great for quick translations and has a surprisingly complete and reliable index of words. I honestly think this is as good as or even better than the Genius J-E dictionary that is in most people’s hand-held electronic dictionaries (but not the E-J dictionary as I will explain in a moment). I have this app, use it frequently, and highly recommend it to anyone, including all travelers, students of all levels, Japanese native speakers, and anyone else who comes into contact with Japanese on a regular basis.
I do however have a couple reservations about this program. My biggest gripe: all data is indexed by Japanese word. This is great for looking up a Japanese word in English, but not so great if you’re going the other way. A search for an English word brings up a list of difficult-to-differentiate Japanese words that contain your query in their translation/definition, and you have to check each of these entries one by one, a pretty frustrating process that can also make it easy to pick the wrong word.
Screenshots
Also, a recent update seems to have resolved a lot of issues with bad and incorrect example phrase translations. But I still can’t help but be wary when the romanizations for many sentences have had their spacing inserted by someone who clearly had no business doing so. Imiwa? does differentiate between “Certified” and regular examples, thankfully.
8. 漢字でQ (Kanji de Q)
Developer: GYRO Inc.
Price: $2.99
App Store: Get Kanji de Q at the iTunes store
uquery link: 漢字でQ
Think you’re good at kanji? Think again. This app provides a simplistic yet fun quiz-game interface to help you polish your Japanese with around 4000 難読 (nandoku = difficult to read) words. This app was intended to be challenging for Japanese natives so it’s definitely only for advanced learners.
Screenshots
This app also makes for a great party game if you’re out with Japanese people. There’s a few apps like this but this one seemed to me to have the largest and best selection of words.
9. Kamehameha
Developer: Issay Yoshida
Price: FREE
App Store: Get Kamehameha at the iTunes store… NOW!
uquery link: Kamehameha
Yeah right, as if there was any chance at all that I would not list this toy.
Screenshots
Press start to begin “charging” your Kamehameha beam, and when you’ve built up enough energy (= when you’ve struck fear into the heart of your opponent by dramatically saying ka~~me~~ha~~me~~!), then you thrust/swing your iPhone forward to release the beam (HA~~~~~!!!!!!!).
Just remember to check to make sure your iPhone has its usb cable unplugged first… and be careful not to actually hurl your several hundred dollar 3GS into a concrete wall or your friend’s forehead.
10. TSUZUMIN
Developer: Tempus Fugit, Inc.
Price: FREE
App Store: Get TSUZUMIN at the iTunes store
uquery link: TSUZUMIN
Instant Japanese atmosphere. I love these sounds.
One more thing
Studying Japanese? Nihonshock offers a free digital Basic Japanese cheat sheet (in PDF form), and it looks awesome in iBooks! It’s totally free, so go get yours today. If you like it, there’s a whole set of advanced cheat sheets available in printed form, and also a digital version of the Numbers and Time cheat sheet for less than the cost of a cup of coffee.
Final Word
Well, that’s all for now. If I find any more awesome Japan-related apps around the app store I’ll be sure to let everyone know. I might post a follow-up article on apps from the Japanese store once I get around to figuring out how to get in… anyway, follow me on twitter since that’s the one place I will definitely post cool apps I find, even if I don’t get around to blogging about them.
Further Reading
Here are a couple links to more articles around the internet with Japan-related iPhone app info. Happy surfing!
- A guide to useful iPhone apps in Japan by Wide Island View
- How to access Japan-only apps, also by Wide Island View
- Roundup of Japanese grammar/vocab study iPhone apps
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34 Responses
More from Nihonshock…
Wow! I’m going to download some of those right now!
Tabelog is a good app, give it a try!
by: Joshua Zimmerman, Nov 18th at 9:55 pm
Skybook is an astounding find. Thanks for letting me know about it!
I can recommend Gengou – it’s especially handy for reading slightly older stories where the years are all Showa or Taisho
by: Agis, Nov 24th at 12:42 am
Dude you forgot 駅.locky! It shows the countdown to the next (you can actually scroll through them) departure at whatever station… It’s good in the morning so I can decide if I need to run to the station or I can get away with just walking… (can cause panics, though…)
by: DAZ-Y3, Dec 3rd at 10:48 pm
大辞泉is the best latest dictionary with hand written recognition dude~
by: Anonymous, Feb 5th at 3:25 pm
Hello, We just published animated interactive kids iPhone/Touch book in Japanese (has also English). It would be nice to know if you guys find it useful or not. It can be found from iTunes Japan with name Mandy and Andy Renovating (マンディとアンディの: コテージを直そう). If you like it we promise to publish new one very soon.
by: Mika, Apr 27th at 10:22 pm
hey thanks for this post… it really helps. i was looking for iphone app to listen to japan radio and u listed Ladio Touch.and to answer ur question it works outside Japan. the other apps are great too
by: kasha, May 19th at 10:38 am
Regarding 乗換案内 (Norikae Annai), I have to disagree with your comment: Good train-finding services in Japan are only available in Japanese.
I always use jorudan (http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/) in romaji and have never had a problem. Gets me where I need to go on time.
That train app would probably not help anyone but a native Japanese or someone with a very high level of kanji. It wouldn’t do me any good without furigana, which from the screenshots looks like it does not include. Since I’ve never used such a program in Japanese, I can’t comment which is superior, but to say “It’s all Japanese or nothing, baby,” is just downright inaccurate.
Just sayin’…
And I also agree with you on the kotoba app, an amazing app for free (I’ve since ditched my word tank) but the romanized spacings are almost undecipherable at times! Who put those together indeed.
by: Kebin, May 24th at 6:18 pm
Sorry for slacking off on my comment responses, everyone!
Thanks for the feedback…
As a quick update, 大辞林 offers handwritten input recognition as of May 2010, making it even MORE worth the price.
@Kebin: Thanks for the link and for pointing out that–yes, train services in Japan are accessible in romaji. You’ll notice however that the Jorudan services offered at the link you included doesn’t give any option to search for the first or last train of the day, or to bring up timetables for a certain line at a certain station. So you’re giving up some functionality to be able to use romaji.
For travel that’s sufficient of course, but IMHO if you live here you really should be making an effort to learn and use the language.
by: Lloyd Vincent, May 27th at 6:36 pm
I would like to check our Japanese Radio Recorder app (Now 10th best music app in Japan.
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/japanese-radio-recorder/id380643708?mt=8#
Thanks
Mohit
by: Mohit Manocha, Jul 23rd at 4:42 pm
Getting access to the Japan iTunes store is as easy as going to a convenience store and buying an iTunes gift card. Once you redeem it you are all set.
by: jon, Aug 8th at 9:41 pm
very useful apps these are indeed! Thanks for the recommendations!
by: chan, Aug 11th at 4:24 am
(LadioTouch) works outside Japan.
I live in Turkey and can use it perfectly !
by: quickplay, Aug 31st at 2:50 pm
Nice post, even though it is almost a year old. Just wanted to chime in that you don’t need an itunes card to get a Japanese itunes account. Just choose a free app off the j-app store and you can choose “none” as your payment method.
by: Fil, Oct 13th at 3:24 pm
So what app do you recommend for E-J dictionary?
by: thechilibuddy, Oct 28th at 8:51 pm
That majestic space adventure… One more time! Leiji Matumoto’s masterpiece that touched the world,Galaxy Express 999, has become a mangado!
by: boogie123w, Apr 13th at 3:43 pm
I started learning Japanese recently and found that an app called iKana touch was by far the best app I ever bought. You can set up a sort of speed test for your self that you can easily do whenever you have a minute or so. It helped me learn Hiragana and Katakana immensely. There is a Kanji version too but I have not got that far yet. http://www.thinkmac.co.uk/ikanatouch/
by: Lux, May 4th at 6:54 am
I would suggest Kotoba and iKanji in iphone apps as two excellent tools for learning Kanji. Kotoba is basically a dictionary that support wordlist creation. Both has animated stroke orders.
by: Abdullah, Jun 22nd at 1:00 pm
Reactor Firefighter is a Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant iphone game
by: ToyotaBrakeRecall, Jul 19th at 5:12 am
Hi
I think you’ll like the Kanji Wordsearch iphone game – it’s fun to play, and it tracks your progress with the kanji/vocabulary that appear in the game.
Try it out!
Oliver
by: Oliver, Sep 16th at 12:57 pm
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by: Steashexceeme, Nov 10th at 8:24 pm
for a code in the title
by: padam, Apr 6th at 5:06 pm
I’d like to recommend our new app http://travelparrot.ch. It lets you create correct Japanese phrases based on your intention and search words and includes lots of spoken samples. Check it out!
by: Mihoko, Aug 12th at 9:36 pm
I am surprised you did not mention the VERY BEST application in the world, for any serious learner of the Japanese language : ShinKanji
It’s the best application ever, where you can draw a Kanji to identify and study it. Really, one cannot survive in the Japanese world without this app.
by: Emmanuel, Oct 3rd at 12:08 pm
And also … Kanji de Q, for this use, is not at all the best application ! Better look for “kaki tori kanji renshuu” (書き取り漢字練習), edited by Nowproduction, it is soooooo far better, for the same purpose.
Both Shinkanji, and Kaki Tori Kanji Renshuu are worth paying for the cheap fee that they ask. Really worth the cost, believe me.
While we are at it, look at all the apps that Nowproduction is publishing. You might find something you like. Originally they were almost made for Japanese native speakers, but they are simple enough for non natives of all levels. Really worth a peek !
by: Emmanuel, Oct 3rd at 2:39 pm
Ladio touch gives me an error message – A server with the specified host name could not be found. Any thoughts on how to resolve?
by: Laton, Nov 11th at 1:25 am
Resolved – It’s ladioplayer in the app store now. And it appears to be great.
by: Laton, Nov 11th at 9:10 am
Great list, Lloyd! I would add two more to the list: Midori (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midori-japanese-dictionary/id385231773?mt=8) and Skritter (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skritter-japanese/id548801568?mt=8).
by: John Fotheringham, Dec 1st at 3:29 pm
(@thechilibuddy)
I really really really love the dictionary app called simply “Japanese” by Renzo Inc. It’s a Jp-En dictionary that I use daily! It has completely replaced my Canon Wordtank for the past several years and I can’t imagine life without it. It features customizable flash card lists, handwriting input, search in reverse option (for when you only recognize the last kanji), a “discover” mode that streams random new words in parallax scrolling and so you can always discover new vocabulary at any time. Even has example sentences. And you can back up your word lists via email. https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/japanese/id290664053?mt=8
by: Q_A, Aug 7th at 11:30 am
通販 時計,パネライ 価格
by: Wenger, Sep 7th at 3:37 pm
Hi,
I am the developer of a new language learning app for the iPhone called “Repeat and Memorize”
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/repeat-and-memorize/id693643710?ls=1&mt=8
As someone learning languages myself I made this app to help me create custom vocabulary lists and to review to memorize.
Info about the app and my contact info is on the website repeatandmemorize.com
It is a paid app but I can give out promo codes and welcome suggestions.
by: Emir Ustamujic, Sep 12th at 12:25 am
I would recommend talking clock in japanese:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id651408620
by: sonmong, Sep 25th at 3:03 pm
Hi There Nihonshock,
Thanks for your thoughts what are some good apps that are like instagram?
i found this one japanese one a few months ago, and deleted it. my roommate has kept it and loves it, and now i want it again, but i dont wanna ask her the name because ive trash talked it. its really just a pride thing.
anyways, thanks!!
Thx.
by: Bronson Bartul, Feb 16th at 6:21 am
Tunein Radio is another decent radio app. You can just search ‘Tokyo’ and find listings. The interface is quite terrible but it does work if you have patience.
by: Pete, Jun 29th at 7:30 am
I would also recommend Yomiwa.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yomiwa-free-camera-japanese/id797542238?mt=8
It let’s you recognize kanjis and translate it from your camera roll or the live camera. Definitely worth to have a look.
by: Chiaki, Sep 11th at 11:30 am