Generating flashcards for studying for the official Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)
A script and Anki package for learning Japanese Language Vocabulary through flashcards.
Structured for the official Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). These flashcards are designed for use in a Spaced Repetition software such as Anki. Anki helps manage when to review the flashcard according to how easy you found the question on the card. The flashcards are designed to help learn japanese vocabulary for all levels of Japanese, from beginners through to advanced native speaking.
Recommended approach. To use the flashcards for learning straight away, head over to JLPT-N5-N1 Japanese Vocabulary and download Anki and add this deck to your profile.
Visit the Latest Releases to download the raw anki files. Useful for manual import. Download Core Japanese Vocabulary Extended.apkg for the anki-ready deck with audio, Core Japanese Vocabulary.apkg for the smaller version without audio (but same vocab), and full.csv for the tabular version of every card in the deck.
Anki as a whole is great because of the ability to easily make changes to how information is presented. You can remove or change teh appearance of anything of the card by messing with the associated style.css or .html cards.
The following is all related to the code for generating the deck. This section is useful if you want to make adjustments to the information on the cards, use different vocab, or alter which data sources are used, and more!
Clone the repository. Ensure you have python installed. Tested using python version 3.13. I would recommended installing the project dependencies in their own virtual environment:
python -m venv env
source env/bin/activate # Linux/Mac
source .\env\Scripts\activate # or Windows
pip install -r requirements.txtrun python createJLPTDeck.py. This will generate a .csv and .apkg files in the output directory. The .apkg file is ready to be imported into Anki (use the "import from file" option). The two different .apkg files are the two different packages, one including audio (and hence a larger size). The .csv is a tabular format of each vocabulary card with all its associated information.
In addition to the above requirements, also install requirements-dev.txt which contains typing and linting.
I viewed the JLPT exams as a clear objective to study for. They are official, and they come in multiple levels starting from beginner so each stage is a small achievable objective. Also, Anki was commonly touted for studying foreign languages. I was drawn to the simplicity and efficacy of Anki, as well as its mature community with plentiful resources. I was able to find a flashcard deck from a book I was using to study (Genki 1 and 2), and straight away I was learning vocab from the book.
As I reached the end of Genki I wanted to continue the strong structured learning, and the JLPTs looked like a target to aim for. However, there was a lack of decent JLPT flashcard decks on Anki, or decks that followed a grading system. There were a few closed-source or paid methods, but as someone who loves open source and also a broke student, these felt beyond what I wanted to commit to as a hobby.
I figured a JLPT-based deck of a few thousand cards could be created programatically. I took lists of vocab within the JLTP, joined it with vocab word information, and made a programmable pipeline to be able to handle the thousands of flashcards that are needed for mastering the Japanese language.
I use these generated decks for my own vocabulary study, and aim to keep it relevant for both myself and others who use it. I want something focused - just JLPT, and to do it well. To be a correct and up-to-date resource for language study.
It's been a challenge figuring out a way to keep the process repeatable, yet make changes to cards and entries when they are incorrect or could do with improvement.
There's always more I want to be doing with this. If you have some ideas you would like to see, drop a github issue, or Anki review.
One idea I would love to pursue is the development of JLPT vocab decks other than English. The JMDict, the go-to online Japanese dictionary, has entries for other languages than English. This repository could be adapted to pull alternative language sources, which could be great!
Some of my opinions about how to make the most of studying Japanese and JLPT vocabulary using this deck.
The deck includes Japanese -> English e.g. [川 -> River] (Recognition), as well as English -> Japanese [River -> 川] (Recall). This can be nice to get to grips when starting to study Japanese, but the English->Japanese can quickly can become frustrating and not as effective a tool as the Japanese->English. Dont' be afraid to remove the recall cards so you are only studying Japanese->English, epsecially if you are past the N5 or N4 level.
Sentence information is most helpful if you have a grasp of japanese grammar and sentence structure. If in the early levels of study, sentences might seem complex and convoluted. They should be ignored or removed until you start finding the context of words becoming a little tricky, probably around N3.
If you want to not include sentences, then you can edit the card format to not display them. It varies by your platform, but you need to go into the corresponding html file for the card and remove occurences of {{example-en}} and {{example-jp}}. You can always add them back in manually, or by re-downloading the deck at a later time without issue.
More detailed information about the generated decks and csvs, the data sources used, and the card structure is available in the data document.
If you've found this deck and script useful, please consider leaving a small donation of your appreciation. Every little bit helps!
