Yomichan

Note: this project is no longer maintained. Please see this post for more information.

Yomichan turns your web browser into a tool for building Japanese language literacy by helping you to decipher texts which would be otherwise too difficult tackle. This extension is similar to Rikaichamp for Firefox and Rikaikun for Chrome, but it stands apart in its goal of being an all-encompassing learning tool as opposed to a mere browser-based dictionary.

Yomichan provides advanced features not available in other browser-based dictionaries:

• Interactive popup definition window for displaying search results.
• On-demand audio playback for select dictionary definitions.
• Kanji stroke order diagrams are just a click away for most characters.
• Custom search page for easily executing custom search queries.
• Support for multiple dictionary formats including EPWING via the Yomichan Import tool.
• Automatic note creation for the Anki flashcard program via the AnkiConnect plugin.
• Clean, modern code makes it easy for developers to contribute new features.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Dictionaries
• Basic Usage
• Custom Dictionaries
• Anki Integration
  • Flashcard Configuration
  • Flashcard Creation
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Licenses
• Third-Party Libraries

Installation

Yomichan comes in two flavors: stable and testing. Over the years, this extension has evolved to contain many complex features which have become increasingly difficult to test across different browsers, versions, and environments. New changes are initially introduced into the testing version, and after some time spent ensuring that they are relatively bug free, they will be promoted to the stable version. If you are technically savvy and don't mind submitting issues on GitHub, try the testing version; otherwise, the stable version will be your best bet.

• Google Chrome (stable or testing)
  

• Mozilla Firefox (stable or testing)
  
  Unlike Chrome, Firefox does not allow extensions meant for testing to be hosted in the marketplace. You will have to download a desired version and side-load it yourself. You only need to do this once and will get updates automatically.

Dictionaries

There are several free Japanese dictionaries available for Yomichan, with two of them having glossaries available in different languages. You must download and import the dictionaries you wish to use in order to enable Yomichan definition lookups. If you have proprietary EPWING dictionaries that you would like to use, check the Yomichan Import page to learn how to convert and import them into Yomichan.

Be aware that the non-English dictionaries contain fewer entries than their English counterparts. Even if your primary language is not English, you may consider also importing the English version for better coverage.

• JMdict (Japanese vocabulary)
  • jmdict_dutch.zip
  • jmdict_english.zip
  • jmdict_french.zip
  • jmdict_german.zip
  • jmdict_hungarian.zip
  • jmdict_russian.zip
  • jmdict_slovenian.zip
  • jmdict_spanish.zip
  • jmdict_swedish.zip
• JMnedict (Japanese names)
  • jmnedict.zip
• KireiCake (Japanese slang)
  • kireicake.zip
• KANJIDIC (Japanese kanji)
  • kanjidic_english.zip
  • kanjidic_french.zip
  • kanjidic_portuguese.zip
  • kanjidic_spanish.zip
• Innocent Corpus (Term and kanji frequencies across 5000+ novels)
  • innocent_corpus.zip
• Kanjium (Pitch dictionary, see related project page for details)
  • kanjium_pitch_accents.zip

Basic Usage

1. Click the <img src="ext/images/yomichan-icon.svg" alt="" width="16" height="16"> Yomichan button in the browser bar to open the quick-actions popup.

   <img src="resources/images/browser-action-popup1.png" alt="">
   • The <img src="ext/images/cog.svg" alt="" width="16" height="16"> cog button will open the Settings page.
   • The <img src="ext/images/magnifying-glass.svg" alt="" width="16" height="16"> magnifying glass button will open the Search page.
   • The <img src="ext/images/question-mark-circle.svg" alt="" width="16" height="16"> question mark button will open the Information page.
   • The <img src="ext/images/profile.svg" alt="" width="16" height="16"> profile button will appear when multiple profiles exist, allowing the current profile to be quickly changed.

2. Import the dictionaries you wish to use for term and kanji searches. If you do not have any dictionaries installed or enabled, Yomichan will warn you that it is not ready for use by displaying an orange exclamation mark over its icon. This exclamation mark will disappear once you have installed and enabled at least one dictionary.

   <img src="resources/images/settings-dictionaries-popup.png" alt="">

3. Webpage text can be scanned by moving the cursor while holding a modifier key, which is <kbd>Shift</kbd> by default. If definitions are found for the text at the cursor position, a popup window containing term definitions will open. This window can be dismissed by clicking anywhere outside of it.

   <img src="resources/images/search-popup-terms.png" alt="">

4. Click on the <img src="ext/images/play-audio.svg" alt="" width="16" height="16"> speaker button to hear the term pronounced by a native speaker. If an audio sample is not available, you will hear a short click instead. You can configure the sources used to retrieve audio samples in the options page.

5. Click on individual kanji in the term definition results to view additional information about those characters, including stroke order diagrams, readings, meanings, as well as other useful data.

   <img src="resources/images/search-popup-kanji.png" alt="">

Custom Dictionaries

Yomichan supports the use of custom dictionaries, including the esoteric but popular EPWING format. They were often utilized in portable electronic dictionaries similar to the ones pictured below. These dictionaries are often sought after by language learners for their correctness and excellent coverage of the Japanese language.

Unfortunately, as most of the dictionaries released in this format are proprietary, they are unable to be bundled with Yomichan. Instead, you will need to procure these dictionaries yourself and import them using Yomichan Import. Check the project page for additional details.

Anki Integration

Yomichan features automatic flashcard creation for [Anki](https://apps.a