# Toku Japanese & Chinese Reader — Tap any word: podcasts, books > Offline Japanese and Chinese text reader with integrated learning tools. (iPhone/iPad app by Darren Nah.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/toku-japanese-and-chinese-reader/id6761078304 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Darren Nah](https://appshunter.io/developer/1887667751) - Category: Education, Reference - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 5.00/5 from 5 App Store ratings · 2 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 17+ - Requires: iOS 17.6 · 711 MB - Languages: American English, Chinese (Simplified, China), Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) - Released: 2026-03-31 - Data updated: 2026-09-20 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/toku-japanese-and-chinese-reader/id6761078304/reviews.md ## What is Toku Japanese & Chinese Reader? Tap any word in real Japanese or Chinese — a podcast, a news article, a novel, a website, your own audio file — and get its reading and its meaning instantly, without leaving the page. The dictionaries live inside the app. Every word is worked out on your device, you never have to sign in, and it all works with the plane in the air. Two engines, one Japanese and one Chinese, work out how each word is actually read in the sentence in front of you — furigana and pitch accent for Japanese, pinyin with the real tone changes for Chinese. Traditional and Simplified characters are both first-class. LISTEN Find shows by search, from the trending charts in Japan, Taiwan, and China, or from a hand-picked list for learners. Every episode gets a transcript — either supplied by the show or generated privately on your device — and the whole transcript is tappable while the audio keeps playing, with the current line following along as you listen. Shadowing mode loops a sentence so you can repeat after the speaker, and you can record yourself to compare. READ ANYTHING Browse Japanese and Chinese websites with furigana or pinyin added in place. Paste a link and get the clean article without the clutter. Import your own EPUB, PDF, text, or subtitle files. Scan a printed page with the camera. Books are laid out like books, with proper Japanese and Chinese line-breaking and real chapters. TAP TO UNDERSTAND Two purpose-built engines — one Japanese, one Chinese — work out how each word is actually read in the sentence in front of you, not just what a dictionary lists. Japanese gets furigana, pitch accent, and conjugation breakdowns. Chinese gets pinyin with tone changes applied. Traditional characters are a first-class choice throughout, not an afterthought. LOOK ANYTHING UP Search from Japanese, Chinese, or English. Draw a character you can't type. See stroke-order animations, radical breakdowns, word frequency, and example sentences from real usage. REMEMBER IT Save a word and it keeps the sentence you first met it in, and where it came from, so you can jump straight back. Spaced repetition returns it just before you'd forget. A home-screen and lock-screen widget keeps a word in front of you, and an optional once-a-day reminder tells you when reviews are ready. Export to Anki at any time. ON IPHONE AND IPAD Toku Reader is built for both. On iPad the transcript, the reader, the dictionary and your word list use the full screen rather than a stretched phone layout. OFFLINE, AND NO ACCOUNT The dictionaries ship inside the app and every word is worked out on your device, with no internet connection. You never have to sign in. Your library is copied to your own iCloud so it follows you between your iPhone and iPad, and you can switch that off, and delete the copy, in Settings. The only text that ever leaves your device is the sentence you ask the AI about, and only after you switch that feature on. WHAT'S FREE Listening, reading, browsing, shadowing, and reviewing are free and unlimited. Word lookups are free up to 15 a day. Toku Premium removes that limit, monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel any time in Settings → Subscriptions. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ ## Key features - Tap-to-read with furigana/pinyin - Offline dictionary and OCR - Import PDFs, EPUBs, and web content - WaniKani and Anki integration - Spaced-repetition review deck - Handwriting input and reverse search ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Toku Reader Premium | $6.99 | per month | | Yearly Premium | $29.99 | per year | ## Recent user reviews (2 of 2) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/toku-japanese-and-chinese-reader/id6761078304/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Excellent minimalist app *2026-09-09* Great features with minimalist design. Sure to become even better in the coming months and years. **Developer response:** Thank you Rajan43 for the review and support. Am definitely looking forward to supporting your language journey in the months and years ahead! ### 5/5 — Beautiful App *2026-07-09* This is a well thought out, beautiful app, which will definitely receive a lot of use by me. If I were to make a recommendation, I think it would be beneficial to be able to view pitch accent upon click of the individual words (Japanese). Other than that, great app. Thank you! <3 Edit: in the latest update, the author of this app added pitch accent! No complaints. Great work. **Developer response:** Thank you for the review! Your support helps make Toku Reader even better. I wanted to provide an update: you can now view pitch accents upon tap of Japanese words! This is available on the newest version of the app. I hope you enjoy this feature. Thank you once again for supporting Toku Reader! ## Frequently asked questions about Toku Japanese & Chinese Reader ### What languages does Toku Reader support? Toku Reader primarily supports Japanese and Chinese. It provides furigana for Japanese and pinyin for Chinese, along with comprehensive dictionaries for both languages. ### Can I use Toku Reader offline? Yes, Toku Reader is designed to work entirely offline. This includes tokenization, dictionaries, OCR, and spaced-repetition reviews, ensuring your reading and study remain private and accessible without an internet connection. ### How does Toku Reader integrate with WaniKani and Anki? You can connect your WaniKani account to sync radicals, kanji, and vocabulary study progress. It also allows you to import your existing Anki decks, preserving your scheduling history for a seamless learning experience. ### What types of content can I read with Toku Reader? Toku Reader can process various text formats, including pasted text, PDFs, EPUBs, and content from websites. It also features OCR to read text from photographs of printed materials. ### Does Toku Reader have ads? No, Toku Reader does not contain advertisements. The app is free to use with optional in-app purchases for enhanced features or content. ### What is the age rating for Toku Reader? Toku Reader has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of users, including younger learners and adults. ### How often is Toku Reader updated? The latest version of Toku Reader is 4.5.6, last updated on June 1, 2026. While specific update frequency isn't detailed, this indicates active development and maintenance. ### What devices are supported by Toku Reader? Toku Reader is currently supported on iPhones. Future platform compatibility may be expanded based on user demand and development. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 6.0.3 — 2026-09-17 Fixes for readers using Chinese, and for long pasted texts. • If your menus are in Chinese, the last English scraps on the word card are gone. • くらい ("about") and the で after it now open the right meaning. • A long pasted text with no blank lines now turns pages instead of being one endless page. • Chinese text with pinyin on starts a little larger, and you can set its size separately. • Connecting to AnkiMobile works again with the newest AnkiMobile. ### 6.0.1 — 2026-09-16 More Japanese words explained in Chinese, and AI answers in your language. • If you read Japanese with Chinese meanings, about 4,700 more everyday words now show a Chinese meaning instead of English — 20,398 words in all. • "Why does it mean this?" answers now come back written in Chinese when your app is set to Chinese. ### 6.0.0 — 2026-09-15 If you read Chinese, Toku now speaks your language. CHINESE, THROUGHOUT • The menus, buttons and settings are in Chinese — Simplified on a mainland phone, Traditional on a Taiwan or Hong Kong one. • Tap a Japanese word and the meaning comes back in Chinese. About 15,700 meanings are built in, chosen from the words readers actually meet in podcasts and articles, grammar particles included. On a real podcast transcript about nine taps in ten now answer in Chinese. A word we don't have yet still answers in English. • Grammar notes, example sentences and the character breakdown follow your language too. • A caution appears when a Japanese word isn't what a Chinese reader would expect: 手紙 is a letter, not toilet paper. • The Dictionary tab answers in your language as well, so searching a word and tapping it finally give the same answer. This Chinese is an early version. It has not yet been read from end to end by a native speaker, so some of it will read oddly. If a meaning looks wrong, tap "Report an error" on the word card — every report is read. NEW FOR EVERYONE • Setting Toku up is five short pages instead of eight, and the first one asks what language you speak. • Settings has been rebuilt: one screen, six plain groups, and every row shows its current setting underneath it. • A word card can open Apple's own dictionary entry, if you have downloaded one. • Thousands more example sentences, including 4,700 new short everyday ones. • Tapping a downloaded episode inside Settings now opens it, instead of doing nothing. ### 5.6.5 — 2026-09-10 Your library follows you. Saved texts, saved words with their review progress, decks and your place in each text now sync between your iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud — private to your Apple ID, and switchable off in Settings. Your podcast favourites and followed shows come too, and now merge across devices instead of one replacing the other. Pull any list down to sync on demand. Toku tells you in plain words whether you are up to date. New in Settings: remove the copy Toku keeps in your iCloud, without touching anything on your iPhone. Plus the usual round of fixes. ### 5.6.1 — 2026-09-08 Your reading follows you between your devices, and one tap now answers twice. • Your library follows you. Your texts, saved words, decks and how far you have read now appear on your other iPhones and iPads — start a story on your phone, carry on from the same line on your iPad. It uses your own iCloud, needs no account, and there is a switch in Settings if you would rather it stayed on one device. • One tap, both answers. Tap the star on a word and Toku now tells you what it means here and what the whole sentence says, together — one tap instead of two, and it still only uses one of your free explanations. • Your free explanations are counted reliably again, so a month's allowance can no longer slip away on its own. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-20.*