We've refreshed the content Japanese to English dictionary, with about an additional 50k entries added in, and many changes to the definitions of existing entries.
While we've taken a lot of care to minimise the impact to any lists that you may have created, you may notice some differences where definitions have been removed or changed.
If you notice any issues with the changes, please let us know via the forum, the contact us page, or you can pm me directly.
What's New! - 8th of April 2021
The root words for compound words and expressions are now showing in the entry details page of the dictionary.
Major improvements to how the Japanese sample sentences are split into words and matched to dictionary entries.
If you notice any problems, please let us know either via the forum, the contact us page, or you can pm me.
What's New! - 20th of March 2021
New Mahjong Game - Practice your Kanji, vocabulary and learn new words by completing fun mahjong puzzles!
What's New! - 20th of January 2021
When clicking on a user's name, a popup showing a 'meishi' for the user is shown rather than redirecting to the user's profile.
Upgraded the voice engine for the text to speech engine, the new voice should be a lot clearer and easier to understand.
The lessons have been upgraded to use the same codebase as the user lists. This will make it a lot easier to add new lessons in the future.
What's New! - 7th of January 2021
Lists can now be sorted, and filtered based on a search term.
Tags can now be added to lists
What's New! - 1st of January 2021
Added a new table view for vocabulary, you can use this view to quickly scan through a lot of entries to find the meaning you want.
Added a new grid view for Kanji.
Added pagination for vocabulary and kanji when viewing lists.
What's New! - 9th of December 2020
Added a new Reading Lessons section, this is a great way to improve your Japanese by reading fun novels in Japanese.
Lists can now be organised into collections. To do this, simply type in or select the new collection name when editing the details for a list.
Lists can now be commented on, comments will appear in the forum.
amazon.co.jp has been added as an affiliate for the site. Please support this site by clicking on the links before buying products from amazon.co.jp.
Remove support for the Adobe Flash Player.
As always, if you notice any problems, feel free to us know either via the forum, the contact us page, or you can pm me.
What's New! - 15th of August 2019
New Crosswords Game - Practice your Japanese by completing crossword puzzles!
Autohide menu on mobile displays
If you notice any problems, please let us know either via the forum, the contact us page, or you can pm me.
What's New! - 9th of June 2019
You can now make friends and send private messages to other members of the Tanoshii Japanese community.
There are three different settings for private messages and friends, which you can configure in your profile:
Receive private messages from anyone
Receive private messages from friends only (default)
Block all private messages and friend requests
If you wish to make friends with anyone, you may send a friend request by viewing their profile page.
If you have any questions on this, or notice any problems, please let us know either via the forum, the contact us page, or you can pm me.
What's New! - 13th of April 2019
We've added a new "Mini Kanji Search" tool to help find Kanji when you don't know the reading for, or how to type it. Just click on the 字 icon when searching the dictionary.
The tool allows you to search for Kanji based on the radicals / parts it is built from, as well as the position of the radical. You may also filter by the reading of the Kanji, vocabulary that the Kanji appears in, or the number of strokes.
As always, if you have any problems using this tool, or if you have any suggestions, please let us know in the forum.
What's New! - 29th of December 2018
The practice games have been optimised for mobile devices, which means the complete site should now work on mobile devices. There has also been numerous improvements to the desktop version as well.
As always, if you notice any problems or questions, please let us know in the forum, or via the contact us form.
What's New! - 1st of December 2018
The forum, and all profile pages have now been optimised for mobile devices.
If you have any questions, please let us know in either the forum, or via the Contact Us page
What's New! - 15th of October 2018
The Japanese to English Dictionary, and the Multi Word Search has now been optimised for display on mobile devices. We've also improved the display for the desktop experience and included a couple of enhancements along with this change.
You may now select to display dictionary listings using the default full view, or a smaller compact view.
The Mult Word Search results can be displayed using the Mini Dictionary, which we believe provides a great reading experience for Japanese learners.
As always, let us know what you think of the changes in the forum.
What's New! - 1st of October 2018
The Kanji Dictionary pages have been optimised for display on mobile devices as the first set of changes for our Kickstarter campaign. Let us know what you think of the changes in the forum.
What's New! - 16th of September 2018
The Multi Word Search engine for the dictionary has been completely rewritten. It is now faster and should be more accurate than the previous engine. If you notice any inaccuracies, or any other problems, please post a message in the forum, or use the Contact Us page.
What's New! - 10th of September 2018
We are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help with the development a new mobile friendly version of our website. Anyone who would like to contribute to the success of this project, you may visit the Kickstarter campaign here.
As a bonus, we are also offering users the ability to freely turn off the display of ads in the website during the period of the Kickstarter campaign. Please visit the support page to find out how.
What's New! - 5th of July 2018
Major update to the Kanji Dictionary, new information includes:
Estimated JLPT Level based on past exam papers
Whether the Kanji is a Jouyou Kanji or not
The grade in which the Kanji is studied in Japanese schools
The meaning for the Kanji in Japanese
Any associated Dictionary entries for the Kanji
The radicals and parts that the Kanji is comprised of
Any variations of the Kanji, and a description of the origin and construction of the Kanji (in Japanese)
Related Kanji by concept, for example kanji for numbers or kanji for directions
Related Kanji containing the same radical / parts
The meaning of the Kanji in other languages (French, Portuguese and Spanish)
New page for browsing Kanji by JLPT Level, Japanese Education Level, Jouyou Kanji, or by Concept
When searching for Kanji, the results now include any Kanji which contain the radical that was searched for
The mini dictionary now shows the details for a kanji if a single Kanji character is highlighted
As always, if you notice any issues, bugs or problems, please post a message in the forum, or use the Contact Us page
Lastly, please Enjoy!
What's New! - 15th of June 2018
Added Video Lessons, courtesy of Easy Peasy Japanesey. Learn Japanese by analysing famous quotes from anime, games and 5channel. This is a great channel for both beginners and advanced learners.
What's New! - 27th of March 2018
Added new resource, Find a Tutor, which will help you to find a qualified Japanese tutor to help you with your studies. The tutors listed come with the highest recommendation from Tanoshii Japanese, so give them a try!
What's New! - 1st of October 2017
New kanji practice game, Select Kanji! Choose the correct kanji from a list of similar kanji to form a Japanese word. This is a great new game for anyone studying for the JLPT.
What's New! - 3rd of March 2017
Fixed issue with colour on bar charts appearing incorrectly.
Fixed issue with time taken in practice results showing incorrectly.
Fixed issue with elongated voice on long sentences.
What's New! - 25th of February 2017
Due to the increased traffic we've had recently, we've moved to a new and more powerful server and upgraded to new versions of all sofware. If you notice any problems please send details via the contact us form, or post in the forum, thanks!
What's New! - 22nd of January 2017
Matched conjugations now show on the details page after searching.
Clicking on a link for the synonyms will open the definition in the mini-dictionary.
What's New! - 6th of November 2016
Writing practice games should now work on Android systems
Matched conjugations now show on the search results page
Recently changed lists now show in the sidebar when viewing your lists from your profile
Recent searches now show in the sidebar when adding vocabulary or kanji to a list
What's New! - 3rd of April 2016
Suffixes are now returned when searching the dictionary. ie, searching for tabenagara will return entries for both taberu and nagara.
What's New! - 18th of March 2016
New Vocabulary Practice Game, Arrange Sentences! Listen to sentences and arrange the words in the correct order.
You can skip questions now in the Fill in the Blanks game (helpful for the really long sentences).
What's New! - 27th of February 2016
Fixed an issue where the voice was slowing down for long sentences.
The audio should work now for both iOS and Android systems.
What's New! - 6th of February 2016
Change the text to audio system to use open jtalk.
Text to audio now only works if you are logged in.
Remove the Hiragana and Katakana audio games as the sound isn't clear enough.
Add audio to the sample sentences.
What's New! - 8th of January 2016
Advanced searching of sample sentences, see the Search Sample Sentences page for more details.
Improvements to how sentences are split into words (there still is some issues though).
Bug fixes to the Fill in the Gaps game.
What's New! - 20th of November 2015
The Matching Furigana and Matching Kanji games now show the English meaning after the correct answer is selected
The Matching English Meaning game now hides the furigana for kanji that you know when the question is asked, and then reveals it after the correct answer is selected
The Fill in the Gaps game will now use the vocabulary filter that you selected
Improvements to the practice results screen when playing multi-games
What's New! - 11th of October 2015
Rename the Word Recognition kanji game to Kanji Readings.
Added a Multi-Game option, with this option you can thoroughly test yourself for each question across multiple games.
Added an Advanced Filter option for vocabulary games so that you can challenge yourself playing with only verbs, adjectives, onomatopoeia etc.
Redesigned the Game results screen for the Single game option so you can quickly switch between games.
Many other minor improvements to the game options screens.
If you notice any bugs, or errors showing, please post here and I'll fix them. Thanks!
What's New! - 20th of September 2015
Improvements to the kanji writing games (better performance and improved character recognition).
What's New! - 30th of August 2015
Practice games now show the sentences that you were asked in the results.
Improvements to how the sample sentence details page is displayed.
Improvements to how the sample sentences have been split into words.
Fixed issue with Fill in the Blanks game not showing all results on the results page.
What's New! - 6th of April 2015
Word Recognition practice game now shows the english meaning of the word after the correct answer is entered.
Matching Japanese practice game now shows the furigana for kanji that is not in your learning list.
Practice results page shows more details in the results.
What's New! - 12th of October 2014
Add most of the remaining conjugations for verbs.
Sample sentences are now being shown for dictionary entries.
New practice game, Fill in the Blanks. This new practice game shows a sample sentence with the words you are studying removed. A great new game which will help both expand your vocabulary and give valuable grammar practice.
What's New! - 6th of October 2014
Improvement to how words which are written usually in kana are displayed.
What's New! - 6th of September 2014
Added new practice game, Kanji Recognition!
What's New! - 30th of August 2014
You may now play a different practice game with the same set of questions.
Writing practice games now give feedback on whether you have drawn the character in the correct stroke order.
Dictionary entries are now grouped into categories.
What's New! - 21st of April 2014
Synonyms now show for entries which contain a Japanese definition..
What's New! - 18th of April 2014
Japanese definitions (with English translations) are now available for most of the dictionary entries.
What's New! - 5th of March 2014
You may now quickly find kanji that is used in the vocabulary of your list by selecting "Kanji from Vocabulary" on the Add Kanji screen.
What's New! - 8th of February 2014
Improvements to the way questions are selected when you play a practice game.
What's New! - 2nd of February 2014
Highlight any Japanese word in the site and it will automatically lookup the meaning in the dictionary for you. Give it a try!
What's New! - 16th of January 2014
The details page for a dictionary entry now include the meaning for each individual kanji used in the word.
The details page for a kanji now include the radicals used in the kanji.
What's New! - 15th of January 2014
When searching in the dictionary, if you enter a * it will match any number of characters.
If you enter a . it will match exactly one character
What's New! - 12th of January 2014
You can now watch threads and topics in the forum and receive email notifications when someone posts in a thread or topic you are watching.
You can customise the frequency of emails that you receive in the "Your Notifications" section under Profile.
New messages since your last visit are highlighted with a "New" icon in the forum.
The forum topics have been reorganised to promote more discussion.
Many other minor enhancements and bug fixes.
What's New! - 2nd of December 2013
Fixed issue with 'Stay logged in' function not working after server move (unfortunately you will need to relogin and select this option).
Fixed issue with jpg avatars not uploading after server move.
What's New! - 1st of December 2013
We've moved to a new server and upgraded to new versions of all sofware. This should be more a more powerful and stable environment, but if you notice any problems please send details via the contact us form, or post in the forum, thanks!
What's New! - 2nd of November 2013
New Feature, Your Lists!
Added a new feature that allows users to create their own lists of vocabulary and kanji which can be used in the practice games. Lists may be set to be public so that you may share your lists with other users, or follow lists that other users have created
Minor changes include:
Visual improvements to how many of the pages are displayed, in particular to the lesson pages and your learning and mastered lists
Added the ability to add forum comments to entries in the Kanji Dictionary
Added next and previous buttons to the multi-word search results page for easier navigation
The display of romaji will now be sticky between sessions
Fixed a bug on the browse dictionary pages which was preventing all words from showing
And many other minor bug fixes and cleanup of code
What's New! - 22nd of September 2013
Added the ability to search the kanji dictionary directly.
What's New! - 18th of August 2013
Added Vocabulary Lessons 7 to 10 for GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese.
What's New! - 9th of July 2013
Added "See all recent posts".
Renamed Products section to Resources.
What's New! - 1st of May 2013
Added Kanji Lesson 2 and Vocabulary Lesson 2 for Intermediate Kanji Book, Vol. 1.
What's New! - 27th of April 2013
Added Vocabulary Lessons 4 to 6 for GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese.
What's New! - 21st of April 2013
Added Vocabulary Lesson 3 for GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese.
Improvement to how words which are written usually in kana are displayed.
What's New! - 14th of April 2013
Added the shiritori forum game to the practice menu.
What's New! - 13th of March 2013
Improved question selection algorithm to give more weighting to questions that have not been asked in a long time.
What's New! - 10th of March 2013
Added Kanji Lesson 1 and Vocabulary Lesson 1 for Intermediate Kanji Book, Vol. 1.
Added Vocabulary Lesson 1 for GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese
What's New! - 4th of March 2013
Improved the interface for all dictionary pages.
Added comments section for dictionary entries.
Improved the interface for the What's New page.
What's New! - 26th of February 2013
Improved caching for iOS devices.
What's New! - 23rd of February 2013
Add administration pages for affiliates and promotions.
What's New! - 12th of February 2013
Changed What's New so it is replicated in the Site Announcements Section of the forum.
What's New! - 7th of February 2013
Added a minimum age of 14 years restriction to users that can post in the forum.
What's New! - 2nd of February 2013
Created the forum!
What's New! - 8th of December 2012
Moved What's New into Home section
What's New! - 5th of December 2012
Added change in score for practice games
Fixed button styles for iOS Safari
What's New! - 25th of November 2012
Added conjugations for the potential form of verbs
What's New! - 18th of November 2012
Redesigned the practice options page to be more user friendly
What's New! - 3rd of November 2012
Added the Hiragana Times to the products page
Added rankings page for practice games
Formatting of practice results
Added practice game summary page in profile section
Added detailed question results for each practice game type in profile section
What's New! - 6th of October 2012
Added GENKI I & II textbooks to the products page
Added new writing practice game for kanji
What's New! - 5th of October 2012
Added verb stem and tai forms to dictionary entries
What's New! - 1st of October 2012
Add kanji details page
Add your overall results to practice results page for logged in users
Allow list of all Kana/Kanji/Vocabulary you are learning/have mastered from the report card
Various minor bug fixes
What's New! - 25th of August 2012
Allow addition of all Kana/Kanji/Vocabulary you are learning/have mastered from the lessons pages
What's New! - 23rd of August 2012
Site can now be added as a web application on the iPad/iPhone (choose add to home screen from safari)
Text to Audio now works on iPad/iPhone.
What's New! - 18th of August 2012
Improved question selection for practice games for logged in users
Detailed results for your favourite practice games on the profile page of logged in users
What's New! - 17th of August 2012
Change facebook code to run asynchronously to improve page load times
Allow addition of Kana/Kanji/Vocabulary you are learning/have mastered from the dictionary search results and entries
Minor compatability fixes for the practice games on the iPad