I’ve been using the NHK resource called “News web easy”, and the site is set up well, but the news they cover is really limited. Because it’s NHK, they only cover really vanilla news, and like every third article is about corona, which I’m so tired of reading about. My listening level still isn’t good enough to understand Japanese news for natives, so does anyone have any recommendations for news in slightly simpler Japanese, especially crime news? Thanks!
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Todai’s Easy Japanese app and website has news articles that are harder on average than NHK Easy, but still easier than “standard” news, plus it covers something *other* than “新型コロナ” this and “新型コロナ” that.
news for 6 year olds: https://mainichi.jp/maisho/
news for 15 year olds: https://mainichi.jp/maisho15
I often go to [https://www.youtube.com/c/NihongoNews](https://www.youtube.com/c/NihongoNews) channel to practice my listening, however, it still uses news web easy as its source though, lol.
Not so much news, and the content will definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you might check out [NHK for School](https://www.nhk.or.jp/school/)
The basic format is ten minute videos. There are a variety of shows on different subjects, and they range in level from elementary through highschool. Science, crafts, history, nature, daily life, etc etc.
The videos all(?) have Japanese subtitles, content summaries, and full transcripts easily accessible which imo makes it a great learning resource. If you’re struggling with listening comprehension, plug the transcripts into something like the [Japanese Text Analysis Tool](https://sourceforge.net/projects/japanesetextana/), sort by frequency, and familiarize yourself with the most frequently used words before watching.
I highly recommend [昔話法廷](https://www.nhk.or.jp/school/sougou/houtei/), a courtroom drama where fairy tale characters are put on trial for their crimes. (Did the three little pigs kill the wolf in self-defense, or was it premeditated murder?) 😛
edit: autocorrect error
There’s [しのせんせい](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7LVTjJJuDB_Qo0BAOQ8NFg) on YouTube. All her [news](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZgEO6PTp8M&list=PLJov1NnDE_N-AUcAL63SiZm91IBAZ9GHk) are rewritten in simple Japanese, but I wouldn’t say it’s any easier than NHK easy news. There are annotations in English though for unusual vocabulary.
I don’t watch her videos on news that often, but I really like her series “[Learn Japanese through Story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhX5Eu2ilkQ&list=PLJov1NnDE_N_92MtmRyQknjavXa1oLSuM)” about Japanese fairy tales and folk lore which she also rewrites for her channel.
I listen to the 24 hour live weather channel sometimes on YouTube. Great way to learn geography and weather terminology