What is the best path forward to become able to read books in Japanese and speak fluently?

For learners whose first language uses an alphabet (like English or Swedish), learning to read Japanese kanji is a fundamentally different cognitive task than learning alphabetic vocabulary. Studies of Swedish learners found they process kanji less efficiently than native Japanese children at the same level, relying more on sound-based shortcuts and having a weaker sense of how the character's overall shape/structure works.^1,3,5,6,7

Learners whose first language already uses Chinese characters (like Chinese speakers) or whose script shares more overlap with Japanese process Japanese written words differently, and often more easily, than learners coming from alphabetic backgrounds. Brain-imaging work found Chinese learners of Japanese activate different brain regions than Korean learners when reading Japanese script, tied to how similar their native script is to Japanese.^4,9,14

Reading a lot of Japanese material (extensive reading) does grow vocabulary, but more slowly than deliberate, focused study of specific words (intensive reading). In one case study of a Japanese learner, the words picked up through casual reading were mainly the ones encountered most often, not the words the learner already partly knew.^2,10

One review argues that a common approach of just feeding learners lots of reading material and vocabulary lists misses a crucial ingredient: learners first need solid, systematic ability to connect written symbols to sounds (decoding). Without that foundation, reading practice alone may not build the ability to pick up new words independently.¹¹

A broad review of second-language reading research (not specific to Japanese) concludes that no single method is enough — solid reading skill comes from combining fluent word recognition, vocabulary building, background knowledge, grammar knowledge, understanding of text structure, reading strategies, reading speed practice, extensive reading, and sustained motivation.¹²

A study of learners who did an eight-week study-abroad program in Japan found nearly all of them improved their speaking level, and those living with host families gained more confidence, largely through everyday conversations like chatting over dinner rather than classroom instruction.⁸

In a study of intermediate and advanced Japanese learners, when teachers responded to a spoken mistake by prompting the learner to fix it themselves (rather than just supplying the correct form), learners fixed the error successfully more often than with simple correction. This self-correction approach worked especially well for more advanced learners.¹³

In a study of Japanese students learning English as a foreign language (not Japanese as the target language, but relevant as general evidence), simply accumulating more hours of classroom instruction didn't automatically translate into better pronunciation and fluency. What mattered more was how learners spent extra time outside class, such as getting focused pronunciation training or extra conversation practice, and individual aptitude.¹⁵

A study of Japanese university students learning vocabulary found that retesting old words together with new ones each week (cumulative testing) improved retention compared to only testing the newest words, but this advantage only showed up when students did enough practice repetitions, and it helped lower-proficiency learners more than higher-proficiency ones.¹⁶

Why is kanji so much harder for some learners than others?

It comes down to what writing system your first language uses. Learners whose native language is alphabetic, like English or Swedish speakers, are doing a fundamentally different cognitive task when they learn kanji than when they learned alphabetic vocabulary, and studies show they process kanji less efficiently than native Japanese children at the same level, leaning more on sound-based shortcuts instead of grasping the character's overall shape or structure. By contrast, learners whose first language already uses Chinese characters, or whose script overlaps more with Japanese, tend to process Japanese written words differently and often more easily; brain-imaging work even found Chinese learners of Japanese activate different brain regions than Korean learners when reading Japanese script, tied to how similar their native script is to Japanese.