HelloStory: Japanese Stories

4.9
164 reviews
Content rating
Everyone
5K+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
Learn more
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About this app

HelloStory helps you truly use the Japanese you've learned by reading stories at your level—and it's completely free.

As a graded reading app, HelloStory offers a wide variety of stories tailored to different JLPT levels, helping you apply Japanese effectively while mastering natural expressions.

Our features help you not only read but truly understand each story:

★ Dive into Stories of Your Level
Enjoy engaging tales across a wide range of topics, crafted by experienced native authors to reflect real, natural Japanese.

★ Instant Understanding Made Easy
Access professional, bilingual translations for every word and sentence—no more guessing, just clear meaning in real time.

★ Listen and Learn Naturally
Immerse yourself in audio recordings by native speakers. Sharpen your listening skills and perfect your pronunciation effortlessly.

★ Multiple Display Modes
Toggle between Kanji, Hiragana, or Romaji to help you recognize and read Japanese characters with confidence.

★ Save and Master Challenging Words
Add tricky vocabulary to your personalized wordlist. Our AI-powered flashcards prioritize what you need most, ensuring focused review and long-term retention.

★ Completely Free
All stories and features are available at no cost—no hidden fees, no clickbait.

Start reading to boost your Japanese skills today with HelloStory!

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Have any questions? Feel free to contact us at support@yuspeak.com
Privacy Policy: https://www.yuspeak.com/hellostory/privacy.html
Terms of Use: https://www.yuspeak.com/hellostory/terms.html
Updated on
Jan 29, 2026

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
This app may collect these data types
Location, Personal info and 2 others
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.9
144 reviews
Greg Ducharme
January 23, 2026
This is honestly the best method an app I've found for learning to both speak and read. Pair this with an app dedicated to kanji study, and you're gold. If I could add one thing that could make learning Japanese easier with this app, is a double translation to help distinguish the logic structure of Japanese vs English . The literal translation, and the contextual one. i.e. Contextual: First, I asked, "Do you have any work stress." Literal: First, "Work Stress, is there?" asked.
2 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
YuSpeak
January 27, 2026
Thank you for your kind words! We're happy to hear that you find the app helpful. We appreciate your suggestion regarding the literal translation for distinguishing Japanese logic. We'll definitely pass it along to the team for consideration. Thanks again for your valuable feedback!
Xianne Jaimee Pagcaliwagan
March 22, 2026
Holy cow, this app was AMAZING. I totally recommend this for beginners since I use this, and wow, my reading skills became much better under 3 days. Though, I wish there was an option to only hear the audio instead of reading it, even without the Hiragana + Kanji, so I really know if I understand most words of that level and to know that I'm upgrading even more, so not only i can READ, but also hear, like hearing conversations lol.
Did you find this helpful?
YuSpeak
March 25, 2026
Actually, you can try tapping the play audio icon in the top-right corner of the lesson screen, this will let you listen to the sentences without reading the text. This way, you can focus on understanding the spoken Japanese and practice your listening skills as well!
Alae
January 10, 2026
I really really really recommend this app for any beginner who wanna learn japanese and couldn't find any good resources for shorts stories and texts. It's very helpful for me since the translation of every single word is available, and even the use of it. Of course they are some mistakes in translation and that stuff but it's still the best app that found till now for reading in japanese. (it only contains stories from levels N5 and N4)
1 person found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
YuSpeak
January 14, 2026
Thanks for your recommendation! We’re glad to hear that we are helping you practice Japanese reading. We also appreciate you pointing out the translation mistakes, if you notice any next time, you can send them to support@yuspeak.com and we’ll fix them promptly. We’ll keep working to make the content even more accurate and helpful. Happy learning!

What’s new

Bug fixes and performance improvements.