Hey everyone,
I’m getting close to ending the third level, but still I can’t read even the most simple Japanese text, written for children 
I assume it’s rather normal, but when did you notice you could start understanding some simple text? Maybe level 6?
Cheers,
Alessandro
Reading will be hard at first, no matter what level you are at. A dictionary will be your best friend! I firmly believe that a dedicated beginner, armed with a dictionary, can read anything.
Having said that, reading will be easier if you know some grammar. Maybe take a look at a beginner textbook, like Genki I, to learn the basic grammar and to start reading easy textbook texts.
But if you know the basics of grammar, and you have a dictionary, then you can start reading any time.
Bear in mind that WaniKani focuses on teaching you kanji, not the grammar and wider vocabulary that you need for reading.
Tofugu recommend picking up grammar study using another resource when you reach level 10 in WaniKani: Learn Japanese: A Ridiculously Detailed Guide
Edited to add:
I would say though that I assume most people studying Japanese would be exposing themselves to grammar and wider vocabulary through reading the language, however casually, through other sources. I doubt that many students are following Tofugu’s ‘wait til level 10 of WK’ suggestion to the extent that they sequester themselves from any grammatical input whatsoever.
Also, the context sentences given in WK are a great resource, as you should be able to read their kanji and pick up the grammar through context. Practice reading them when you come across them.
Though note that a popular view on the forums is that level 10 is leaving it later than you need to, and you could perfectly well start earlier. (Personally I didn’t do anything resembling serious kanji study until I was well into a textbook.)
Ah yes, of course I also need to study grammar I know that, and I’m starting as well, but every time I put my eye on any text, it’s so full of kanjis I don’t know 
Have you learned hiragana already? If not, then start with that.
Children’s books will have “furigana” next to the kanji, these are tiny hiragana that tell you how to pronounce the word (and make it easier to look up in a dictionary)
You can start now. You won’t go far but, you can start.
That doesn’t sound like a constructive answer but I mean it. One of the very first things I tried reading was the dialogue in Final Fantasy VII, a game that’s dear to me. Of course at first you can mostly only use it as practice for hiragana and katakana but you’ll also almost certainly encounter high-frequency kanji you already learned in a meaningful context.
行くぞ、新入り！オレに続け！
At level 2 there’s only one kanji you’ll recognize here (入り, stem form of 入る) but if you look up the rest you’ll see:
行く (to go) is level 5
新 (new) is level 9
続 (continue) is level 19
オレ can be written with the kanji 俺 (I/me) that’s on level 13
The full sentence means something like “Let’s go, newcomer! Follow me!”.
I remember spending a lot of time looking kanji up like this on wanikani when I was in the early stages, I found it very motivating. In this case I knew that by the time I reached level 20 I’d have enough kanji knowledge to read the dialogue box without having to look up any kanji.
As you progress you can return to the game/manga/whatever and gauge your own progress. Eventually you’ll find that you understand enough to keep going and actually play the game.
It’s also a good way to get feedback about where you should focus your efforts. I remember that at some point around level 25 I started noticing that kanji were becoming a lesser issue when reading simple Japanese, but I was really struggling with grammar. So I started studying grammar more.
Yeah, I’ve done both hiragana and katakana 
I followed the tofugu guide that made you learn them both before the kanjis. Well, I did hiragana first, then while studying the kanjis the word “hotel” came up, so I paused and learned all the katakana as well Then I got back and all the words like “ringo” or the nation names were so much easier to understand right away.
Still, if you go to websites like
I can’t get anything Well, I see there’s a “Gojira” right there at the top today, so finally I understood at least one word
I started reading graded readers at Level 5-6. A dicitonary comes in very handy.
Yeah this is absurd
I think you are much better suited to study grammar for a while and then go onto drilling kanji (wk or other resources)
With a little grammar, it might be possible to read articles with a vocabulary list. Otherwise, a digital text article with Yomitan or 10ten.
Looking up Kanji can be a mild trouble when the texts aren’t digital. Options are learning about strokes and handwriting keyboard for Kanji, and using things like Google Lens.
News, even “easy” news, is really not the simplest material. Anything with a big visual component is going to be easier to work with because of the added context. That’s why I personally favor videogames and manga. Anime with subtitles probably could work too, if you don’t mind pausing for every line of text.
But also there’s no magic trick. Reading is going to be painfully slow at first regardless of how much SRS you do. The more you do it the easier it gets, but you have to start somewhere. Just learning to break sentences apart will take a little while due to the lack of spaces (and I still mess it up regularly in complicated constructions that take me a couple of tries before I parse them correctly).
I actually practice kanji writing and proper stroke order heavily but I still prefer searching by component/radical when I find an unknown kanji (admittedly being able to count the strokes is a big help to comb through the results but technically it works without it).
I started reading graded readers at level 5(?) but I think everything clicks together when you learn the basics of grammar. WK isn’t my only study source, though.
I bought “short stories for japanese learners” level 1 off amazon for approx $12 and when I first went to read it the characters just about floated off the page. I was able to read it and understand a majority of the stories a month after I bought it.
I recommend reading stuff you’re interested in. I’m not interested in reading news articles so…I don’t. I’m sure there’s merit to it but meh it’s not fun for me and feels like a slog…hehe. I’m reading manga but my goal is to be able to read a light novel that hasn’t been translated yet.
https://www.satorireader.com/series
This site is useful, too.
Lot of good points above, let me just add one thing:
“Reading text” as your measure is always going to be a bit demoralizing, because even if you know 80%, the 20% you don’t is going to interrupt your flow and make you feel stupid.
On the other hand, if you’re function-oriented, like the previously-mentioned video game, or in my case, actually going to Japan - it’s pleasantly shocking how fast you start to be able to read “good enough”. With even level 10 kanji and N5 grammar you’re well into “can get the gist of the sign, not getting lost on the train, etc” territory.
Like, I don’t bother looking for the English button on a lot of websites any more. It’s not that I can “read Japanese well”, it’s because for the function I’m trying to accomplish–book a hotel room, make a restaurant reservation, get directions to the museum, etc.–I can read “well enough” to do that. I can find the thing I’m looking for in the grocery store.
I CAN’T (yet) understand a news story on politics or economics, or things like that. I CAN understand this news segment is about “a car crash and two people died”, or “a bear hurt some people in such and such a city” but not all the details.
If you look at it not like “how much can I read” but “what kinds of things can I do with what I CAN read” - it’s a lot of things, even while you’re constantly encountering kanji you don’t know.
Small aside to this. I intentionally set my phone to Japanese for this purpose. Maybe not advice everyone should follow, but if you’re going all the way with trying to get to a point of being able to use it in the wild ASAP, that will get you there.
It means all your apps that have Japanese versions, like all social media platforms, will be in Japanese going forward too. A lot of those, you’ve probably been using blindly without looking at the text because you know where everything is anyway. So double checking what things mean that you’re constantly seeing all the time in an actual practical environment, even if you got yourself there impractically, can help you go a long way.
Just maybe don’t do it too early when you’ll be entirely lost. You want to be just lost enough to find your way, not completely.
There likely are other things where you could do the same. Finding things where you’re familiar with another language version where you can look at it with fresh eyes in (basic) Japanese. Like rereading a simple (usually Shonen Jump) manga you love, watching an anime episode with English subs and then Japanese subs when possible.
Just know that at first, you’re going to spend more time trying to decode and figure out what stuff means rather than actually just read it. Even if you have all the tools at your disposal, your brain won’t immediately know how to use them all at first. And that’s totally fine, even if frustrating.
The easy part in nhk news web easy is compared to the regular news but it is not easy at all and you need to be aroung level 14 to understand about 75% of what you read.
When it comes to childrens books in Japanese, not very helpful for beginners either, since it is mostly written if not entirley in kana, and japanese kids already know to speak and have a huge passive amount of vocabulary that Japanese as a foreign language learners don’t have. And grammar wise, they don’t learn the masu form first, which leads me to what is suitable for absulote beginners graded readers like Tadoku Books which is a free resource where you can start from level 0. Grammar wise masu form should be enough for it. There is also the option of paralel readers that come with a word glossary and the story translated to english like You can read Japanese! which would become easier at level 4 or 5.
You can start reading Level 0 graded readers as soon as you know the kana. This will teach you grammar, vocabulary, and kanji.
That said, knowing the basics of Japanese sentence structure and the particles will be a useful start, and there’s loads of YouTube videos that will take you through those.
You’ll find reading hard whenever you start, I mean it’s hard enough to learn in your native language, let alone one you don’t speak that has no common ground, so expect to struggle. Really struggle…
Learning kanji, vocabulary, and grammar outside of reading (and listening/watching) will help, but should be secondary. In general, learning to read is quite mentally tiring, so you’ll have plenty of time for other learning anyway.
You have to start with very simple books, written mostly in hiragana with some kanji here and there. This is what I’m currently reading: Tadoku books for level 0. Supposedly tadoku is a method by which you would read without looking anything up in the dictionary, but I do look stuff up, otherwise I can’t understand anything! I’m probably at a similar level as you are. Also, don’t skip vocab in wanikani.
Also, original Japanese Game Boy games come only in hiragana/katakana because of the constraints of the system… It’s a good kana practice
^ I came here to say that!
And to link these:
^ Very detailed guide on tools and resources to start reading Japanese.
^ This one will be veeeeeery useful as well!
P.S.: My personal experience of learning to read is a total mess, nevertheless, I don’t recommend children’s books (tried that, went like this: 
) for reasons mentioned by @2tea and depending on your motivation, dedication and available time would second the recommendations of Satori Reader, Yomitan and free Tadoku books at your current Wanikani level, @Monops79 !
