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5 Current Japanese Podcasts I Love Listening To — 22 Comments

  1. I’ve become absolutely hooked on ひいきいびいきい. I have to listen every morning when I get up and prepare for the day, or I feel that my day is incomplete. The hosts are laid back and speak easily; they sound like a couple of old friends hanging out and talking. They talk about lots of great (fun) stuff: video games/systems, cars, trips to Tokyo Disney, pets, food, iPads, etc. They also answer listener mail–that’s always fun, too! Both the vocab and grammar seem to match up nicely with Jalup decks up into the intermediate level and beyond (I am currently reworking intermediate in Next, and I’m at around 680 cards). The hosts are easy to understand, so if you’re feeling down about your listening comprehension, give this podcast a try. I love it! I subscribed through iTunes, but here’s a link to their webpage:

    http://hkbk.fm/

  2. I sometimes listen to HOTCAST http://radio.hotcast.info/ it’s a weekly podcast. I haven’t listened to many episodes yet (I just found it recently thanks to a thread over at the koohii forums), but I found the speech relatively clear and while it’s still a bit above my level right now as a somewhat intermediate learner (~level 25 or so, though with somewhat strong listening compared to the rest) it doesn’t feel like it’s completely out of reach. So I kind of hope that if I keep at it I’ll slowly get more out of it ;)

    The IT trend podcasts sound super interesting and I haven’t heard of them before. I will definitely check them out!

    • I just noticed that I didn’t say much about the contents… the topics seem kind of random, I guess you could say they have some random lifestyle topics or so? They talk about food quite often but also other stuff. Probably easiest to check out the site.

  3. I use an app on my android phone (don’t know about iphone) called Podcast Republic and they make it very easy to find Japanese podcasts. All you have to do is change the country setting to Japanese and there you go.

    • Change the country setting to Japan, is what I meant to say. That’s what happens when I try to edit something mid sentence.

      • Awesome, I’m really glad you found it useful! I pretty much listen to podcasts whenever I’m driving somewhere, and this is the best app for android that I’ve found.

        If anyone has other suggestions please let us know!

  4. Thanks for sharing Adam. I found all of these on Podcast Republic. I used to actively listen to podcasts a while back and have been wanting to get back into it.

  5. Sound Library
    ~世界にひとつだけの本~
    http://www2.jfn.co.jp/library/

    This is one of my favourites. Each episode is a short story revolving around travel, in Japan and throughout the world, narrated by a lady with the most gorgeous voice.

    Fiction as far as I’m aware. Start from episode 1. 15~min episodes.

  6. I’ve just today discovered the merits of looking for podcasts in the Kids and Family section of itunes. I listened to スマスマE-kids from RBK Radio and they were interviewing a 11ish year old boy who was doing 狂言 which is the only word I had to look up to understand that podcast. That and the band Scandal’s old SCANOMICS radio show are the only two podcasts where I really follow what they’re going on about. I’ve got to put in some effort to finding podcasts I actually understand, since I watch dramas like a crutch a lot of the time – I use the visuals to understand.

  7. Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. This post was a great find. I just subscribed to NHKラジオニュース and ひいきびいき!

  8. 世界一周!チラ見の世界史 Is also really good. Harder than スマスマE-kids, more interesting than the news, and more structured than ひいきびいき but retaining a relaxed casual atmosphere. Since each episode is about a specific country’s history, I feel sort of prepared with my English understanding in my head, and also the stucture helps so that I find it easier to follow than free-topic podcasts like ひいきびいき despite it being harder than my other choices, and relevant to m interests haha. I can sort of float in and out of understanding with it.

    I’d also like to make a shout out for 女子だけ体育館に集会, which is very free form and informal… The main reason I listen to it is I just love the women and their enthusiastic voices. They sound like friends you want to have. I’ve gotta do some sport in Japan just to get some friends to 体育館に集会

  9. ヘタレ外人Podcast is good listening practice for beginner to intermediate listeners. It is a podcast with a Japanese learner speaking Japanese with natives. Conversations are at a slower pace so easier to understand.

    https://soundcloud.com/hgpodcast

    • Haha, of course. I don’t think I knew about your podcast when I wrote this post a year and a half ago.

  10. Thank you for the information. I wish to ask if there is an attached written material of each podcast of NHKラジオニュース ? It would be helpful to first read the short news and listen to it. Thanks.

    • I don’t know any specific direct transcripts, but you could just use the NHK news site alongside the podcast. Since the news is the same there as it is on the podcast.

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