JLPT N4 Japanese Stories — Free Reading Practice
JLPT N4 stories are longer and bring in te-form, casual speech, conditionals, and chained verbs. The narratives start adding slight twists — family, hobbies, work, and school told with more nuance.
N410 pagesI am a cat - 私は猫です
A cat humorously observes its human's stressful modern work routine.
N48 pagesAn Umbrella on a Rainy Day - 雨の日の傘
Soaking wet and wrongly blamed, quiet Mio finally feels a surge of courage to speak up to her mom.
N410 pagesThe path to a fugu chef - ふぐ料理人への道
A student trains for the perilous fugu chef's license exam.
N410 pagesThe God of Sushi-寿司の神様
Jiro Ono's lifelong pursuit perfected the art of sushi.
N410 pagesDay at the Market - 市場での一日
Makoto finds joy and community at the bustling local market.
N410 pagesTo Mount Fuji - 富士山への旅
A man achieves his dream by climbing Mount Fuji.
N47 pagesSurprise - サプライズ
After hearing her roommate cry through the wall about a forgotten birthday, Towa decides she has to do something before morning.
N410 pagesVending Machine Nation - 自動販売機の国
An American explores Japan's ubiquitous vending machines and their cultural insights.
N46 pagesPan the Panda - パンダのパン
Pan the Panda trains in martial arts along the Great Wall of China.
N47 pagesMysterious Forest - 神秘の森
Ken finds a hidden forest temple and a treasure with a difficult choice.
N49 pagesThe Sumo Match - 相撲の試合
A sumo wrestler's intense preparation and struggle for victory.
N410 pagesEmma Going to Shibuya - エマ、渋谷へ行く
Emma arrives in Japan, navigating her way to Shibuya.
What is JLPT N4? Lower-intermediate Japanese
JLPT N4 is the second official level — the point where you stop translating sentence-by-sentence and start reading in chunks. It corresponds to roughly 300 hours of study, or two semesters.
The N4 grammar shift is bigger than people expect. You leave the polite-only ます-form world and enter casual speech (食べる instead of 食べます), the all-important て-form (食べて, 行って, 見て) and its dozens of grammar uses, conditionals (~たら, ~ば, ~なら), and the ability to chain verbs ("go and eat", "eat while reading").
N4 stories reflect that. They run 600 to 800 Japanese characters across 7–10 pages — almost twice the length of N5 stories. Sentences get longer, characters talk to each other (sometimes politely, sometimes casually), and the narratives start adding slight twists. Family, hobbies, work, school — everything you'd discuss at an intermediate language exchange.
Study tips for N4
- Learn the te-form cold before you go deep on N4. Every other N4 grammar point builds on it (~ている, ~てから, ~てください, ~てもいい, ~てはいけない).
- Track casual vs. polite speech. When a character switches from です/ます to plain form, that's social information about the relationship.
- Sentence-mining beats flashcard cramming. Pick 5 sentences from each story, copy them out, and use those as your SRS items.
- Read with the English visible for the first 2–3 stories. Then cover it and only peek when stuck. The covered-translation method builds reading speed.
- Don't skip the descriptions of weather, food, or scenery. That vocabulary is exactly what shows up on the JLPT reading section.
N4 reading — frequently asked
I just passed N5. Can I jump straight into N4 stories?
Yes, but expect some friction in the first few. The grammar density doubles and the stories are nearly twice as long. Read with the translation visible the first couple of stories, then start covering it up.
How is N4 different from N5 in reading?
Three big shifts: (1) story length goes from 250–400 to 600–800 characters; (2) te-form conjugations everywhere — they're the spine of N4 grammar; (3) casual speech mixed in alongside polite, plus longer sentences with subordinate clauses (~から, ~ので, ~けど).
How long is an N4 story?
600–800 Japanese characters across 7–10 pages — about 8 to 12 minutes on the first read.
What grammar should I know to start?
The full N4 grammar list: te-form and its main uses (~ている, ~てから, ~てください, ~てもいい), plain vs. polite forms, conditionals (~たら, ~ば, ~なら), volitional (~う/~よう), potential (~られる), passive and causative basics.
When am I ready for N3?
When you can read an N4 story end-to-end without checking the translation, and you understand both the literal meaning and the nuance — who is speaking politely vs. casually, what mood the narrator is in. That usually takes 3–6 months at N4.
350+ stories, native audio, tap-to-translate — in the app
The free web library is a curated slice. The Shinobi app has 350+ unique graded stories, native audio for every page, tap-to-translate on every word, JMDict dictionary lookups, and SRS review.