Dokuen Japanese Reader

Dokuen Reader

In-app purchases

Download Dokuen Japanese Reader today and unlock your Japanese reading potential!

About this app

Read any Japanese text instantly. Dokuen adds real-time furigana overlays to kanji in any app, making manga, games, video subtitles, news, and websites accessible right on your screen. Point your camera at real-world text like menus, signs, or physical books to get instant readings.

Unlike basic machine translation, Dokuen is built to help you read and acquire authentic Japanese. Tap any word for definitions, verify your comprehension with sentence helpers, and connect seamlessly to your custom sentence-mining workflow.

MAIN FEATURES

🚀 Instant Screen Overlay Mode
Activate the overlay to get real-time furigana in any app! Whether you are browsing social media, reading manga, following along with video subtitles, or playing untranslated games, Dokuen adapts to on-screen text smoothly without interrupting your flow.

📸 Live Camera Mode
Read real-world Japanese anywhere. Point your lens at physical books, manga volumes, packaging, or street signs to see furigana appear directly over the print.

📖 Tap-to-Define Integrated Dictionary
Lookups without leaving your screen. Tap any recognized word to view readings, definitions, pitch accents, and component kanji using the built-in dictionary.

🔍 Comprehension Helper
Need extra context? Drag-select entire phrases or sentences to generate quick structural aids and translations to verify your understanding without breaking your immersion.

📇 Instant Anki Export
Supercharge your vocabulary acquisition. Send target words, readings, and sentence context straight to your Anki decks with a single tap.

🔌 Modular OCR Engine Plugins
Use Dokuen’s flexible plugin system to choose the exact OCR engine that fits your needs. Connect state-of-the-art cloud engines for peak precision, or run lightweight local engines for completely offline, private reading.

📚 Custom Dictionary Plugins
Swap in your favorite dictionaries via dedicated plugins, including ready-to-use Yomitan and JPDB plugins available on Google Play, or build your own custom dictionary plugin to fit your exact learning goals.

🔗 Custom Quick-Action Buttons & App Integration
Tailor your study setup to your exact workflow. Tap a word to launch it directly in your favorite dictionary app or SRS system. Choose from ready-to-use presets or write simple custom scripts to build the ultimate study pipeline.

⚙️ Display Customization
Personalize font sizes, colors, opacity, and positioning so furigana overlays stay clean, readable, and easy on your eyes across different apps and backgrounds.

WHO IS THIS FOR?

• Active Immersion Learners: Designed for sentence miners. Plug in your favorite OCR, map custom lookup shortcuts, and export clean cards directly into Anki without tab-switching.
• Gamers & Media Streamers: Play raw Japanese visual novels, mobile RPGs, and watch subtitle-heavy video content with real-time reading support tuned for media.
• Manga & Novel Readers: Dive into untranslated light novels, web fiction, and digital manga. Read kanji naturally in context, checking definitions only when you need them.
• Expats & Travelers in Japan: Navigate daily life with confidence using live camera lookups for mail, product labels, restaurant menus, and official documents.

Stop letting unknown kanji interrupt your reading flow.

Download Dokuen Japanese Reader today and unlock your Japanese reading potential!

Ratings and reviews

I've been using this app for around 6 months, tldr: this app has been a total game-changer for my experience reading manga in Mihon. Some more thoughts: The app is just at the right level of ease/speed of use that it doesn't break the flow of reading and take you out of the story. Previously for unknown words I would usually skip them using context+Kanji to guess meaning. Now a couple of screen presses gives me a dictionary definition and could easily send to Anki if I wished. out of space o7

I wanted to like this app because of how easy it was to use and all, but it was often incorrect. it would identify the kanji incorrectly, and the alternatives weren't correct, so I'd have to do a manual search anyway (defeating the purpose of this). it also gave the wrong reading of the correctly identified kanji. it would give the reading of the kanji as if it were alone with no characters around it, regardless of everything else. this fully defeats the purpose of a furigana reader.

One of the best app for immersion with phone. I didn't find any other app that can do ocr accurately without any ads. And anki integration is just awesome. Now i can watch video on YouTube, read books, read online articles without any worries. If you are a Japanese Language learner this is the best app for immersion.

What’s new

Vertical Text Ordering: Vertical (tategaki) text blocks are now forced to right-to-left order, even if the OCR engine reports columns from left to right.
Fix: Auto Text Direction setting sometimes remaining disabled after switching to a supported Scan Mode.
Fix: Repairs in Camera Mode updating the dictionary but failing to reflect on the overlay.