Book Providers for Learning Japanese

Find all the best ways to buy books in Japanese. Below you can search our listed providers and see our community notes on them. If you'd like to help write the descriptions, come join us in the forums!

Amazon JP
recommended
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Amazon JP is the Japanese branch of Amazon which offers the most extensive Japanese book collection in the world - they have basically everything you could want.

International credit cards are accepted and shipping is no issue.

The only issue with Amazon is, of course, the shipping cost. It's recommended to buy many books at once to get a better shipping deal. If cost is an issue, we recommend looking at ebook providers, such as BookWalker.

BookWalker
recommended
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Our favorite e-book provider for Japanese books! They have an incredibly large library and accept international payments. They also frequently run massive sales.. even offering free limited-time offers for popular manga!

The only drawback is that you do have to use their website or phone app for viewing. It's alright, but text selection is a bit of a pain. They do allow limited text selection, but you have to go into annotate mode.

Regardless, we think BookWalker should be in every learners mind when buying an ebook.

CD Japan
recommended
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CD Japan is one of our favorite options for physical media. Plenty of shipping options, plenty of payment options. Customer service is reliable and they pack stuff very well. They recently lowered prices for shipping, which puts them even cheaper than Amazon in our experience.

  • Payment Address: International address required for CDJapan, for shipment within Japan you have to use Neowing.co.jp, not cdjapan.co.jp
  • Payment: Debit Card, Credit Card, Cash, Paypal, Points, Alipay, WeChat, International Postal Money Order
Amazon CA
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Amazon DE
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Amazon ES
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Amazon FR
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Amazon IT
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Amazon UK
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Amazon US
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Amazon US does have a large collection of Japanese books and if you live in the US, it's a convenient option.

However, Amazon US tends to be even more expensive than buying from Amazon JP in bulk and shipping it, so we usually recommend that option.

Aozora
ebook
free
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Aozora is a free website with collections of out-of-copyright texts in Japanese.

No signup required - simply find the text you're looking for (google is your friend here) and you can then read or download as you see fit!

Aozora Roudoku
audiobook
free
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Aozora Roudoku is the audiobook companion-site to Aozora. It is a free website with collections of out-of-copyright texts in Japanese.

No signup required - simply find the text you're looking for (google is your friend here) and you can then listen as you see fit!

Apple App Store
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audiobook.jp
audiobook
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The most comprehensive audiobook store for Japanese.

Address: No local address required. No verification process.

Payment: in Yen directly; some non-Japanese credit cards work, but not all; PayPal works;

international IP address: OK

Access: App for android and iOS devices (with offline functionality) or downloading through the PC browser as mp3 files

BookLive
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CMOA
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  • Payment Address: No local address required. No verification process.
  • Payment: in Points, you buy them using Yen currency; some non-Japanese credit cards work, but not all; Paypal works; no gift cards international IP address: OK
  • EBook Access: App for android and iOs devices (with offline functionality) or reading on PC browser (internet required)
  • Notes: constantly there are a ton of free trials available on a variety of manga; it has a good variety from different sources; has options to read by chapter rather then by volume;
ComicWalker
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eBook Japan
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Google Play
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Honto
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Honto.jp is one of the largest providers of Japanese books, but unless you're in Japan, international shipping can be a bit more expensive. They use a service called Buyee and you'll end up paying for both Japanese sales tax and your local sales tax. They offer lots of coupons & rewards points for the budget shopper.

Other than that:

  • International IP addresses are ok
  • International payment is ok
Honto eBook
ebook
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Honto.jp does have a large and competitively-priced selection of eBooks and it can also be a good option for international users, especially for user looking for alternatives to Amazon Kindle JP. They offer lots of coupons, rewards points and some limited-time free reading for the budget shopper.

  • International IP Address is ok
  • International payment is ok
  • There is browser reading support and there are Windows and Mac apps available here. We can only speak to the Windows app but it does install and work correctly. The Windows app does not have dictionary functionality built in - every search will redirect you to the browser. The Android app has some built in dictionary functionality via pop-up definitions from Wikipedia, but this isn’t as good as real dictionary integration.
  • iPad/iPhone apps are region locked, you can’t use these outside of Japan.
  • Their Android app is not available via Google Play, you have to manually install the APK. The full instructions (Japanese only) are here.
Kakuyomu
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Kobo
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Kobo is the ebook store for Rakuten.

Address: Local address required.

Payment: in Yen directly; some non-Japanese credit cards work, but not all; Paypal works;

international IP address: OK

Access: App for android and iOS devices (with offline functionality) and a PC software (with offline functionality)

Notes: Sometimes it's cheaper to buy in Yen directly rather then buying points

OMG Japan
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Pixiv
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The information below is mostly for Pixivコミック (the comics store), as we don't have much experience with the other parts.

Address: No local address required. No verification process.

Payment: in Points, you buy them using Yen currency; some non-Japanese credit cards work, but not all; PayPal works; no gift cards important note: I can’t see the points I bought through the app on the site so they might be separate for some reason

international IP address: OK

Access: App for android and iOS devices (with offline functionality) or reading on PC browser (internet required)

Notes: if you already use pixiv to follow artists you like then it’s a comfortable way to see stuff from them as well; a lot of free content to read; if you follow something consistently you can also get to read it for free when it’s available (after a certain amount of new chapters some of the chapters become only available on the volume itself when it comes out); you can get early access to some good stuff if pixiv is the one publishing it; you can swipe both left-right and up-down without changing any settings (it’s constantly on for both, can be a bit annoying when you try to minimize something on your phone though)

Rakuten
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Renta!
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Renta! started as an online manga rental service by Papyless Co. Ltd in 2007. But you can buy manga and a limited number of light novels as well. Renting means you have access for 48 hours at an reduced price. Buying means you have access as long as the platform exists. They have trial reads of varying lengths.

  • Payment in Yen, PayPal is no problem, international CC as well I’d assume. You buy some “points” and change them in to buy or rent books.

  • Login: create your own account (with an international email address) or use Google, Twitter, Line, or Yahoo login.

  • Access by browser (via some kind of App).

  • Notes: They have some discount system to reward frequent readers. They also have sales or limited period free reads, say, for 14-28 days, if some manga is under discussion, like e.g. an anime is announced.

Soseki Project
ebook
free
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The Soseki Project aims to make the works of Natsume Sōseki more accessible to students of Japanese. It covers just a handful of the author’s works, but each text is split into sections, with native audio recordings, built-in hover-over dictionary lookups, and a study guide with rough translations you can use to check your understanding of each passage. No signup is necessary; everything is freely available.
Syosetu
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Tadoku
ebook
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Tadoku is a wonderful website, which lists a ton of free graded readers with audio.

The same company, NPO Tadoku Supporters, also sells many graded reader books as well, if you want something physical :)

Amazon Kindle DE
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Amazon Kindle ES
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Amazon Kindle FR
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Amazon Kindle IT
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Amazon Kindle JP
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Amazon Kindle JP is the Japanese branch of the Amazon ebook shop with a very large - and constantly growing - catalog of books. Aside from buying individual books, there is also Kindle Unlimited (an all-you-can-read flat fee) available. Included books change regularly.

  • Address: Local address required. No verification process.
  • Payment: in Yen; some non-Japanese credit cards work, but not all; gift cards available
  • International phone numbers are not allowed.
  • International IP address: sometimes causes issues.
  • Access: Physical Amazon Kindle e-reader or app for mobile devices and PC or read in browser (proprietary e-book file format)
  • Notes: Regular sales and a point system are offered. The physical Kindle e-reader includes dictionary look-up functionality.
  • Recommendation: BookWalker usually has the better deals and doesn’t have any issues with international IP addresses.
Amazon Kindle UK
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Amazon Kindle US
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Amazon Audible ES
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Amazon Audible JP
audiobook
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Amazon Audible JP is the Japanese branch of Amazon Audible offering a constantly increasing catalog of audiobooks in Japanese. The service is currently provided for a monthly flat fee (unlimited listening).

  • Residential Address: Local address required. No verification process.
  • Payment: in Yen; some non-Japanese credit cards work, but not all; no gift cards
  • International IP address: OK
  • Access: App for android and iOS devices (with offline functionality) or streaming on PC (internet required)
  • Notes: Some audiobooks are also available to buy from your regional audible.
Amazon Audible UK
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Amazon Audible US
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Kinokuniya JP
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Kinokuniya are the largest bookstore chain in Japan. Their Japanese website has a very large selection of books and will ship internationally with payments by a foreign credit card. Their setup has some quirks, though:

  • You have to create an international-shipping account up front; it seems to be a separate system from their Japan-based account creation, so make sure you’re filling in the correct account creation form. Confirmation of the account takes a few hours before you can actually use it for placing an order.

  • International accounts are not eligible to gain or redeem loyalty points, so you don’t get to make savings by being a regular customer.

  • You don’t get to pick a delivery address different from the one address you gave when you signed up. (You can tell the courier a different address once the package has shipped, though.)

  • Shipping costs are a bit of a gamble, because you don’t get told the exact cost before you place the order, and they have very broad bands. For example for shipments to the UK anything up to 2kg is 3500 yen, and then 2kg to 7kg is 7700 yen. So 1.99kg of books is very good value, and 2.01kg is very bad value

Project Gutenberg
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Suruga-ya (International)
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Suruga-ya carries a lot of out-of-print items that aren’t available on Amazon. This is the International/English version, which ships internationally. The do also have an Japanese version which requires a Japanese address.
Verasia
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Verasia is an EU based book-provider primarily focused for EU customers. They ship from Spain and have the option of standard shipping with delivery times depending on your local postal provider or express delivery with DHL Express, which in our experience is quite fast.

The price is higher than the Japan based stores, but since it’s shipped from within the EU, you don’t need to deal with customs/VAT charges which can be a headache and delay shipping. It comes in a bit cheaper than Amazon DE charges for english translated manga. And the selection of Japanese language manga is certainly better than Amazon DE.

駿河屋 / Suruga-ya
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Suruga-ya carries a lot of out-of-print items that aren’t available on Amazon. This is the Japanese version, which requires a Japanese address to order. The do also have an international version in English.
Open Library
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