Welcome to the “Read Japanese Every Day” Challenge, Summer 2026 Edition! 
Happy summer to the Northern Hemisphere (and Winter to the Southern)! May all of us not have overly extreme temperatures this season. Let’s all stay safe and enjoy a good book regardless of the heat/cold.
What is this thread?
This is a challenge to read every day for 2 months in Japanese. It’s alright to start late and if you fall off, please don’t be too hard on yourself. So long as you read something in Japanese during the challenge, please consider it a partial success rather than a failure. And if you read every day of the challenge, please consider it a complete success. The only real rule is to try to read every day in Japanese for 2 months. You are welcome to track your reading however you like.
Who is this challenge for?
As @Redglare has said:
This is a thread for people who:
want to spend time reading a bunch
To add onto that, this is also a thread for people who want to track or talk about their reading too. If you’d like a computer to do most of your tracking, please check out Natively.
When is this challenge?
Time frame: July 1 - August 31
Again, late starts are totally welcome! Usually people will continue posting through September and some may give some updates even later. It’s all good! You can start and finish your personal challenge at any point during that time, and shorten or lengthen the challenge to the time period that works best for you. Personally, I usually extend my reading into the 3rd month since I find these challenges help me reach my annual reading goals.
Do we have to read forever?
While the name of the challenge is “Read Every Day,” you may have noticed that it also has a season attached. That’s because each challenge only lasts 2 months. Forever would be a long commitment. By having clear start and end dates, it becomes a much more manageable goal. At the end of the challenge, please consider what worked or didn’t work for you. Did you have fun? Then you can take a break or decide to keep going.
Also, please don’t worry about starting late or not completing the challenge! Life happens. This is an open opportunity for everyone who wants to set some reading goals. Everyone is welcome.
What should we read?
As @windupbird has said
Your reading materials can be whatever you want, be it manga, light novels, books, visual novels, magazines, graded readers, satori reader, Japanese webpages/blogs, or Japanese games - you name it, anything goes as long as it is something in Japanese
“Reading” can be interpreted creatively, if that helps keep you motivated - for example, some people have counted reading Japanese subtitles as reading some days. In general, we are a pretty flexible and forgiving bunch
Need help finding something to read? Check these threads out!
The News Reading Challenge - folks typically read the easy NHK article of the day or other similar articles from various apps
The "news reading" challenge 🗞
The Immersion portion of this thread has a lot of great resources
The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List!
Reading the same book with others can be pretty motivating. It’s also easier to ask about grammar or vocab, so how about joining a book club? If you don’t want to join, you could always take it as a recommended book instead. A list of book clubs can be found here:
Where does this challenge come from?
Back in the summer of 2021, @Redglare had the great idea of a “Read Every Day” challenge, in which participants challenged themselves to read something in Japanese every day for 2 whole months. Since then and until winter 2024, @Redglare and @windupbird have hosted this challenge every season. Thanks to them, many of us have improved our Japanese and lifestyles! You might notice that I am neither a bird nor glare. I offered to take over the challenge since they’re quite busy (お疲れ様！), but of course they’re welcome to take it back at any time if they want to. I’ll do my best to keep up the encouragement!
Please help us keep this a positive, encouraging, and fun space! Please feel free to bribe encourage fellow participants with cute pet and animal photos or recipes even.
Archive of Past Challenge Threads
Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 
Read every day challenge - Fall 2021 
Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 
Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 
Read every day challenge - Summer 2022 
Read every day challenge - Fall 2022
Read every day challenge - Winter 2023
Read every day challenge - Spring 2023 
Read every day challenge - Summer 2023 
Read every day challenge - Fall 2023 
Read every day challenge - Winter 2024 
Read every day challenge - Spring 2024 
Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Summer 2024 
Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Fall 2024 
Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2025 
Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Summer 2025 
Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Fall 2025 
What do the emoji in the title mean?
This Season's Emoji Explanation
This summer’s emoji are a wave and a mountain. Traditionally, Japan’s mountains have been considered the sacred homes of the gods and ancestors. Long ago, only certain people could enter mountains, but as more and more people wanted to pray to the gods more directly, a day was set aside for mountain climbing and then later, mountains became open for the summer. Similarly, the sea is closed much of the year, but it’s more so because it’s both dangerous and unpleasant to swim when the jellyfish season starts in August and too cold earlier in the year. Japan being a country of many rules, this effectively means that the oceans and mountains are only open from early July to early or mid August. Additionally, the government established two happy monday holidays - 海の日 and 山の日 - in summer.
- Yes
- Yes, but I might start late
- Not sure
- I’d like to but I can’t
- No
Happy reading!
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