About Us

The Japan Shop is a family-run publisher and online store of Japanese-learning books that helps self-taught adults, from absolute beginner to intermediate, read and understand real Japanese through stories with every word explained and audio recorded by native speakers.

We are Clay and Yumi Boutwell, a husband-and-wife team in Florida: Clay the learner, Yumi the native speaker. We opened TheJapanShop.com in 2002, and while our team has grown we still write the books, record the audio, and answer the email ourselves.

What The Japan Shop does

Digital bundles for every level

Most of what we sell is a digital bundle: a set of eBooks in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats, MP3 audio for every Japanese example, and on most titles Anki flashcard decks. You download it right after checkout and keep it forever. The bundles run from our Complete Beginner Bundle for people who do not know hiragana yet up to intermediate readers on Japanese history and folklore.

Japanese readers with every word explained

Our Learn Japanese with Stories series (20 volumes), plus the Yokai, History, and Haiku readers, print each sentence on its own page with furigana and a full vocabulary list underneath. Then the story appears again with no help, so you can test yourself, and once more in English. Every story is read aloud twice by a native speaker, once slowly and once at natural speed.

JLPT N5 and N4 preparation

The JLPT N5 and N4 bundles cover the kanji, grammar, vocabulary, and reading for each level, with audio and Anki decks. They are useful whether or not you ever sit the test.

Makoto, our monthly magazine for learners

Makoto has come out every month since April 2018, and there are now more than 100 issues. Each one mixes short stories, dialogues, culture, and jokes at several levels, all with audio. You can buy issues one at a time, in 6-issue and 50-issue bundles, or read every issue through a Makoto+ membership.

The Makoto+ Japanese Explorer app

Many of our books unlock inside the free Makoto+ Japanese Explorer app (iPhone, Android, and web), where you can tap any word for its reading and meaning and play each sentence on its own. The unlock code is printed in the back of the book.

What makes The Japan Shop different

You buy it once and own it

Every bundle is a one-time purchase with free lifetime updates. When we correct or improve a book, you download the new version at no charge. There is no subscription to keep up, and the files stay on your device for good.

A real native speaker on every recording

All the Japanese audio in our books and paid bundles is recorded by Yumi and other native speakers. Yumi was a radio DJ in Japan for more than ten years and is trained in standard Japanese pronunciation. The stories are recorded twice, slow and natural speed, so you can follow along first and then listen the way Japanese people speak.

Every word defined on the page

Many graded readers are written only in Japanese and leave you to guess. We print a vocabulary list under every sentence, with furigana over every kanji in the notes, so you never have to stop and look something up.

Everything in one download

A bundle includes PDF, ePub, and Kindle files, the MP3 audio, and usually Anki decks, for one price. Buy more than one digital bundle in an order and the discount comes off automatically: 5% for two, 10% for three, 20% for five.

A small team that answers you

Write to help@thejapanshop.com and Clay or Yumi will read it. If a digital purchase is not right for you, tell us within 60 days and we refund it in full. We have sold more than 200,000 books, and our store has more than 700 verified reviews averaging 4.9 out of 5.

Who uses The Japan Shop

• Adults teaching themselves Japanese at home, usually 15 to 30 minutes a day
• Absolute beginners who have not learned hiragana yet
• Learners who finished a textbook such as Genki and now want reading practice
• JLPT N5 and N4 candidates
• Anime and manga fans who want to understand Japanese without subtitles
• Travelers getting ready for a trip to Japan
• Spanish and Italian speakers, through our translated editions

The team behind The Japan Shop

Clay Boutwell

Clay started learning Japanese in the 1990s with a Canon IDX-3000 electronic dictionary and put up TheJapanesePage.com, one of the first Japanese-learning sites on the internet, in 1999. He writes and designs the books, builds the websites and the app, and answers most of the customer email.

Yumi Boutwell

Yumi is from Fukui Prefecture, just north of Kyoto, and spent more than ten years as a radio DJ in Japan. She checks the Japanese in everything we publish and records the audio you hear in our books.

How the shop started

In 2001 we finished our first book, Hiragana, the Basics of Japanese (a free download today), and sold it through TheJapanesePage.com. As the catalog grew we needed a proper store, and TheJapanShop.com opened in early 2002. (Clay admits the naming could have been more creative.) Our books are published under the Makoto Press name.

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How The Japan Shop works

• Delivery: digital orders arrive by email with download links right after checkout. There is no shipping and no waiting.
• Lost your email? Download everything you have bought, in its latest version, at our customer login with your email address and any order number.
• Updates: free for life. Log in again any time to get the newest files.
• Getting started: not sure which bundle fits? Our Which bundle is for me? page sorts them by level, or email us where you are and we will tell you where to start.
• Support: help@thejapanshop.com, answered by Clay and Yumi.
• Physical items: Mangajin back issues and shikishi boards ship from Florida by USPS, free in the US on orders over $45. Our paperbacks are sold mainly through Amazon.

Key facts about The Japan Shop

Frequently asked questions

Which bundle should I start with?

If you are new to Japanese, start with the Complete Beginner Bundle. If you already know hiragana and basic grammar and want reading practice, start with Learn Japanese with Stories. The Which bundle is for me? page covers the rest.

Is this a subscription?

No. Every bundle is a one-time purchase, and updates are free for life. Makoto+ is a separate, optional membership for people who want every magazine issue and the full app.

Will the books work on my phone or Kindle?

Yes. Each bundle includes PDF for computers and tablets, ePub for phones and most eReaders, and Kindle files. The audio is standard MP3.

Who records the audio?

Yumi and other native Japanese speakers. All the audio in our books and paid bundles is a real person reading, slowly and then at natural speed.

Do you use AI?

We use it as a tool for editing, software, and graphics, the way we have used every new tool since 1999. The stories, the explanations, and the Japanese are ours, and the recorded Japanese in our paid products is always a native speaker, although we do use text-to-speech (TTS) for some vocabulary in our app.

What if a purchase is not right for me?

Email us within 60 days and we will refund a digital purchase in full. You do not need to give a reason.

I lost my download email. What do I do?

Go to the customer login and enter your email address and any order number. Everything you have bought is there, in its newest version.

Do you still sell physical books?

We are almost entirely digital now. Our own paperbacks are sold through Amazon, and we still ship Mangajin back issues and shikishi boards from Florida.

Thank you for learning with us. 少しずつ (すこしずつ), little by little.
Clay & Yumi