Japanese Counters Master vs Patapa
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Japanese Counters Master
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Japanese Counters Master makes learning Japanese counter words (josuushi) fun — for kids, adults, and Japanese learners alike. Counter words like "ippon," "nihiki," and "sansatsu" are one of the trickiest parts of Japanese. This app helps you master 112 of them, step by step. Every question, option, example, and explanation comes with furigana, so you can learn even if you can't read kanji yet. Features • 4 practice modes: Learn, Text quiz, Listening quiz, Picture quiz • Daily Challenge: 5 fresh questions every day • Time Attack: how many can you answer in 60 seconds? • Levels & XP, streaks, combos and confetti for a game-like feel • Daily quests and a friendly mascot, Jocchan, to guide you • Hear the correct reading with built-in audio • Furigana on everything (toggle on/off) • Dark mode • Game Center achievements (iPhone / iPad)
Patapa
Learn Japanese with daily short stories tailored to your JLPT level. Instantly look up word meanings, practice kanji with furigana, and test your comprehension with quick quizzes. Focus on learning without distractions.
- Daily short Japanese stories
- JLPT level-specific content
- Tap-to-translate vocabulary lookup
- Furigana and Romaji options
- Five-question comprehension quizzes
- Daily JLPT vocabulary practice
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Patapa gives you one short Japanese story every day, written for your JLPT level, from N5 to N1. Read it. Tap any word you don't know and see its reading and meaning right there in the text. Listen to the story read aloud, one sentence at a time. Answer five questions about what you read. Tomorrow there is a new story. Kuro, a three-legged crow, reads along with you. He is dry, a little playful, and never scolds. STORIES • A new story every day at every level, N5 to N1: everyday scenes, seasons, work, school, food, the occasional crow • Everyone on a level reads the same story that day • Furigana on every kanji, or hide it when you're ready. Romaji too, if you need it. • Tap any word for its reading and meaning. Save the ones you want to keep. • Read aloud: hear the whole story, with the sentence being spoken highlighted • Five questions after each story. A wrong answer shows the right one at once, with the sentence it came from. You never get stuck. • The last few stories stay on the shelf if you missed a day WORDS • Five new JLPT words a day, each with an example sentence, usually one from the stories • A short review quiz that brings old words back just before you forget them • A quick quiz whenever you have a spare minute VERBS • A conjugation drill with the verbs from your level • Plain and polite forms: ます, ません, ない, た, て and the rest of the everyday set • Say the answer, then check it. The stem is greyed out, so you only look at the ending. KANJI • Draw kanji in stroke order and see the words they live in WHAT YOU DON'T GET • No account needed. Open it and read. • No ads, no tracking, nothing collected. Everything stays on your phone. • No points or coins. Just a story. Patapa is new and still growing. Tell us what you'd like to see: hello@patapa.app
Screenshots
Verdict
Japanese Counters Master and Patapa are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Japanese Counters Master ships an update every 10 days, Patapa every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Japanese Counters Master | Patapa |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 83 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hatsuhito Shimizu | Digital Lighthouse Oy |
In-app purchases
Japanese Counters Master
No in-app purchases
Patapa
No in-app purchases









