By JLPT level

Japanese stories for JLPT N4

Stories retold in easy Japanese, with furigana on every kanji. If you know basic grammar and everyday words, you can read them to the end. Short sentences and familiar words — a good first step into real stories, and a fair challenge at N5.

Stories at N4

2 stories
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Part 2
Digest Lower-intermediate · JLPT N4–N3 · 15 min
竹取物語 - Part 2 of 3
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Anonymous · c. 10th century
Five noblemen want to marry Kaguya-hime. She asks each of them for a treasure that may not exist: a jeweled branch from a magic island, a robe that cannot burn, a jewel from a dragon's neck. What follows is a thousand-year-old comedy of lies, fakes, and failed heroes.
Open Story
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Part 1
Digest Lower-intermediate · JLPT N4–N3 · 15 min
竹取物語 - Part 1 of 3
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Anonymous · c. 10th century
An old bamboo cutter finds a tiny girl glowing inside a stalk of bamboo. She grows into the most beautiful woman in the land, and word of her beauty spreads far and wide. Written over a thousand years ago, this is Japan's oldest surviving story, called "the ancestor of all tales" in The Tale of Genji.
Open Story

Podcast

3 episodes

Episodes of The LITIM Japanese Podcast whose Japanese matches this level (an estimate).

JLPT levels are our estimates of how difficult each text is (N5–N4 on this page). All stories are in the Library.