Japanese is spoken by approximately 122 million people in Japan. There are also speakers in the Ryukyu Islands, Korea, Taiwan, parts of the US, and Brazil.

Spanning 17 centuries of development, the Japanese language originated with the Kanji alphabet in the 5th century AD. Early usage of Japanese was difficult to implement, which paved the way for two phonetic alphabet systems, Hiragana and Katakana. While Hiragana integrated with the Kanji alphabet to show syllables for suffixes and particles, Katakana was primarily utilized for non-Japanese words. In present-day Japan, all three writing systems work together; it’s not uncommon for Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana to appear in a single sentence or paragraph.

Given its somewhat complicated origins, Japanese is one of the more difficult languages to learn. However, with the Pimsleur Method™, you can learn Japanese and start speaking the language in no time at all.

The Pimsleur Method encourages a gradual learning pace to start, with the goal of getting you to speak, understand, and read Japanese. Unlike other Japanese courses, Pimsleur builds a solid foundation to learn Japanese with Graduated Interval Recall, Organic Learning, Core Vocabulary, and the Principle of Anticipation – all four principles in tandem to study Japanese the right way and effectively build a working structural knowledge of the language.

Pimsleur’s flexible learning applications put plentiful possibilities at your fingertips to help you learn the Japanese language. With our on-the-go app, you can take Japanese lessons even offline, whether you’re in Tokyo or Toronto. Pimsleur’s mobile-friendly convenience allows you to take Japanese lessons in the car while you’re doing laundry, taking a walk, or during many other day-to-day activities. Best of all, you can learn Japanese at your own pace, in about 30 minutes per day.

Developed by Dr. Paul Pimsleur (1927-1976), the Pimsleur Method promotes sure, steady progress in your effort to learn Japanese. Based on the four core principles mentioned above, you’ll gradually learn to speak Japanese with helpful Voice Coach AI pronunciation feedback, challenging core Japanese lessons, digital flash cards, Speed Round games, and more. You will also learn to manage everyday conversations between friends, family members, or colleagues who are at the same level in an organization.

Remember when you first learned your native language? It was by listening to other people speak the language. Children and toddlers are hard-wired to learn new words and phrases simply by listening. And that’s the approach Pimsleur uses with our Japanese courses.

Eventually, you’ll be able to speak effectively with native Japanese speakers. And you’ll not only pick up important words and phrases – you’ll also converse with the pace and cadence of Japanese speakers, from casual encounters to in-depth social conversations.