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Japanese Newspaper Sites
Here is some information about Japanese newspapers. Each of the first three newspapers listed below are widely read, national publications. The fourth is the most popular English-language daily in Japan. Yes, Japan has an English-language daily paper -- more than one, in fact.
朝日新聞
The regular edition of the Asahi. Notice that in the top menu bar (just below the banner) there is a link to the "English" version. Many articles in the Japanese newspaper will be difficult for you to read -- because of the specialized vocabulary, background information that you might lack, etc. You can prepare yourself to eventually read the newspaper by reading the English pages to learn what's going on in Japan. You could also try to read articles in Japanese that particularly interest you. Be sure to use Rikai-chan to help with the kanji lookup.
The 朝日小学生新聞 and the 朝日中学生ウイークリー
The 朝日小学生新聞 is a great place to learn about Japan and get good practice reading. Just below the banner and the advertisements at the top of the main page, you will find a panel of links to the various sections of the newspaper. Explore around. Find a section that interests you and try to read something in it everyday. Use the Rikai-chan lookup tool to quickly find meanings for words and kanji readings yiou do not know. Try to read for content -- it is not necessary that you learn every word, or even any words, except the ones that interest you. Same goes for kanji. If you read just to understand, and read regularly, then you will keep seeing the important words over and over. After having to look them up a few times, you'll have learned them without hardly trying. The secret is to read often enough that you keep seeing the important words a lot.
読売新聞 (Main Japanese Page Address)
The Yomiuri Shinbun site has good videos of newscasts -- in both Japanese and English. But the Japanese ones will be very hard for you to understand now.
There is a link to the English versions of the articles in the menu bar at the very top. One interesting English-language section you might want to read regularly is "The Language Connection."
Yomiuri has a much less extensive children's site than Asahi Shinbun, but you may find things there you want to read.
毎日新聞
The Mainichi Shinbun children's pages have kanji readings in parenthesis after each word. This practice is actually not so good for you: you should have to examine and either recognize or guess at each kanji before letting your eye run to the readings right away. Reading the Asahi or Yomiuri children's sites with Rikai-chan to check yourself is a much better way to learn.
The main Mainichi site.
The Japan Times
The Japan Times is an all-English language newspaper (and web site). Get in the habit of reading it to keep up with news in Japan. The Japan Times has the most extensive classified ads of any English-language newspaper in Japan, and companies and schools looking for English-speaking people will advertise here. So, if you are in Japan looking for a job...
It also has much information about living in Japan, finding a place to stay, etc.
Check the "Education" section for articles about language. The film reviews are pretty good, too.
The textbook for JPN 111 is published by The Japan Times. They publish many books for the nihongo learner.
