The holiday season is coming. That’s right… it’s time to shop for Christmas gifts!
If you have a Japanese language learner in your life, what better present than something that celebrates their passion for Japan and Japanese!
That’s why I’ve put together a gift guide of top gifts for Japanese language learners.
With these Japanese gift ideas, you can help support them in their mission to learn Japanese, and give them a gift they can use every day during their study time.
You might even find something for yourself, too 😉
Gifts for Japanese language learners
- Japanese Playing Cards
- Japanese/English vocabulary stickers
- Read Real Japanese Fiction
- Mnemonic flash cards
- Kana mug
- Word search puzzles for Japanese learners
- Dirty Japanese book
- Kanji poster
- Japanese card game
- Japanese From Zero
- Kanji De Manga: Yoji-Jukugo
- JapanesePod101 gift subscription
- iTalki gift card
- Japanese bilingual cookbook
- Japanese writing practice notebook
- Japanese keyboard stickers
- 70 Japanese Gestures: No Language Communication
- More gift guides for Japanese learners!
Japanese Playing Cards
A classic deck of playing cards with a twist: each one features a different Japanese phrase! This deck might not get you fluent, but it’s a fun stocking stuffer for someone learning Japanese. You can practise a few phrases while you play card games, or use them as flashcards.
Japanese/English vocabulary stickers
We’ve all heard the language learning tip to label things in your home in your target language. This cute sticker set makes it easy! Each sticker has a common household object, with a picture, name in Japanese (kana) and English, and pronunciation.
Read Real Japanese Fiction
Are you looking for a gift for someone who loves Japanese novels? They will love this bilingual Japanese reader, suitable for intermediate levels and up.
It features six short stories by popular modern writers such as Banana Yoshimoto and Hiromo Kawakami. Each double spread has one page in the original Japanese, while the facing page has translations of key words and phrases in English.
Mnemonic flash cards
For a beginner who still has to learn the Japanese kana (syllabaries), flashcards are a great gift idea! This set features mnemonic phrases and pictures to help you remember the characters easily.
Kana mug
Do you know someone trying to learn to read hiragana? This useful mug has a hiragana table printed on it. It will help them to practise every day while they’re drinking their coffee!
Word search puzzles for Japanese learners
A book of over 200 puzzles in Japanese! I never thought of doing word searches in Japanese before, but it’s actually a brilliant idea because you have to really pay attention to the individual characters.
This book uses kanji, so I would recommend it for intermediate learners and above.
Each puzzle focuses on a different set of vocabulary. You can use the word list to revise vocabulary, too.
Dirty Japanese book
This would make an awesome gift for anyone who wants to know ‘real’ Japanese! This hilarious book teaches you everything you don’t learn from the textbooks, including Japanese slang, swear words, dating terms, sex talk and insults.
Perfect gift for anyone who actually wants to live in Japan and make friends with the locals. 18+ only!!
Kanji poster
This epic kanji poster contains an amazing 2136 kanji! That is all the jōyō kanji (the kanji set by the government that Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn by the time they graduate).
This is an amazing gift for anyone determined to become fluent in Japanese, or just for anyone who admires the beautiful Japanese writing system!
Japanese card game
A fun card game to practise questions, answers and vocabulary in Japanese. This is a great way to actually get talking in Japanese and bring the language to life!
Japanese From Zero
Are you looking for a gift for a language lover who’s thinking about starting Japanese?
Japanese From Zero is one of the best selling textbooks for beginners learning Japanese. It teaches hiragana (the most essential of the Japanese alphabets), basic grammar, and lots and lots of essential words and phrases for a visitor to Japan.
This would be a great gift for someone who’s always been interested in Japanese but hasn’t yet taken the plunge.
Kanji De Manga: Yoji-Jukugo
If you’re buying for someone a bit more advanced at Japanese, I love this book on yoji-jukugo. Yoji-jukugo are special Japanese idioms that are written with four kanji characters. They are essential learning for advanced Japanese speakers who want to speak like a native.
This book is not like an ordinary textbook: it has a cute manga drawing for each phrase, with a funny little story to make them super easy to remember! Check it out on the ‘look inside’ feature on Amazon!
JapanesePod101 gift subscription
JapanesePod101 is our top recommendation to learn Japanese online. We love the fun, current audio lessons and interactive online tools. Sign up for your free lifetime account and see for yourself!
JapanesePod101 is one of the best resources for online Japanese lessons (check out my review here to learn more).
They have literally thousands of Japanese lessons at every level and covering every topic. In my opinion, the best gift you could give a Japanese learner is access to this amazing collection of resources – they’ll be able to use and benefit from your gift every day, and well into the future!
Subscriptions can be for 1, 3, 6, 12 or 24 months, and there are different levels of access available, so this can be a gift suitable for any budget. They even offer gift vouchers.
Currently you can get 20% off any gift voucher with voucher code GIFT20!
iTalki gift card
iTalki is an amazing website that lets you take private lessons with a real Japanese speaker from the comfort of your own home, by video call. If you know someone who’d love to get some real Japanese speaking practise, why not treat them to some credits to buy some sessions on iTalki.
Japanese bilingual cookbook
Learning Japanese is not just about learning words and grammar. Language learning is more fun when you also embrace the culture!
Anyone who loves Japan and Japanese would be delighted with this lovely cookbook. It teaches many classic and traditional Japanese recipes.
What’s more, each recipe is printed both in Japanese and in English – so you can study as you cook!
Japanese writing practice notebook
Anyone learning the Japanese writing systems will tell you, it takes a lot of practise to get your handwritten characters looking good.
This notebook has a classic Japanese design on the front, and the inside pages are marked into squares for practising kanji or kana (also known as genkouyoushi paper).
Japanese keyboard stickers
Have you ever wondered how to type in Japanese with an English keyboard? The easiest way is with these keyboard stickers. They are available in several different colours, so simply stick over your keys and you can see the hiragana character as well as the English letter.
Then, when you switch the language settings on your computer, you know which keys to press.
70 Japanese Gestures: No Language Communication
It’s often said that 55% of communication is nonverbal. So when you learn Japanese, be sure to learn Japanese gestures too!
This funny book teaches 70 gestures (with lots of pictures) that are essential to know to avoid any misunderstandings in Japan! You’ll be amazed how different some of these are from English 🙂
What do you think? Will any of these be going on your shopping list this year?
Whether you are looking for a Christmas present or a birthday gift for someone learning Japanese, I hope you found some inspiration here.
More gift guides for Japanese learners!
- 21 Awesome Gift Ideas for Japan Lovers
- Gift Ideas for Anime Fans Who Want to Understand Japanese Without Subtitles
- Top Japanese Stationery Gifts for Japanese Learners Who Live for Pens and Paper
- 10 Best Japanese Gifts for Kids Obsessed With Japan
Rebecca is the founder of Team Japanese. She spent two years teaching English in Ehime, Japan. Now back in the UK, she spends her time blogging, self-studying Japanese and wrangling a very genki toddler.