Learn 20,000+ Japanese words with a spaced-repetition system built for long-term memory. Playful, gamified sessions under 5 minutes a day — no boring textbooks. Mainichi skips the flashcard grind. Short, low-pressure sessions that fit into a real day — show up, relax into a round of vocab, and let your streak do the rest. Clean cards. Fast sessions. A progress bar that actually fills up. The interface gets out of the way so you can focus on the words.
A few months ago, learning Japanese myself, I got frustrated — vocabulary is the foundation of any language, yet most apps skip past it for drills or games. So I decided to build my own.
As of today, Mainichi is live on the App Store. Solo project, built out of love for the language and the craft. Would mean a lot if you gave it a try if you are also learning Japanese - if not, maybe it's a good moment to give it a go!
You can explore Japan prefecture by prefecture as your vocabulary grows. Master a dictionary of 20,000+ words with a spaced-repetition system designed for long-term memory. And battle bosses, hunt treasures, and roll for XP along the way — because learning a language should feel like an adventure.
Download Mainichi on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ma...
Read more: https://mainichiapp.com/
PS. Android version coming very soon!
I liked the concept and think you will be very successful if you can attract the right users, as a total beginner, i tried it and felt it was just too hard to start.
@Michał Paczyński makes sense, a geography wrapper is already a nice hook to make vocab feel less like a flat list. if you do go down the dialect road eventually, Osaka/Kansai-ben would probably be the most requested since it shows up so much in casual media, might be worth prioritizing over the smaller regional ones.
This is super cool and I'd love to try it out once available in the Play Store! As someone who has downloaded way too many language learning apps throughout my life, this is definitely one of the most interesting! Will there also be learning of the writing systems or just straight into vocab?
The prefecture-by-prefecture progression layered on spaced repetition is a nice hook — most vocab apps just drop you into a flat deck with no sense of place. Two practical ones: if I miss a day, does the SRS just reschedule the reviews I owe, or does a broken streak reset my review queue and set me back? And can I seed it from words I already know so I'm not grinding beginner vocab to unlock the later prefectures?
Okay this is right up my alley, I'm a bit obsessed with Japan. Kyoto's my favourite city in the world, so learning the language one prefecture at a time really speaks to me. Way more motivating than another generic vocab app. Can't wait to try this out, nice work!🇯🇵
Love that you tied vocabulary progress to Japan's prefectures, since anchoring words to real places gives the learning a sense of journey that plain flashcards never manage.
The prefecture-by-prefecture spine is what pulled me in — I spend my days on a different version of this, turning places into journeys, so I'm curious how much work the geography actually does here. When you move to a new prefecture, does the vocabulary move with it — regional food, dialect, the words you'd actually need on the ground — or is the map mostly a motivational layer over one big word list? The first would be a lovely thing. Either way, solo-built and this considered is rare. Congrats on shipping.
I like the focus on consistency over intensity. Five-minute sessions with spaced repetition are much more realistic for long-term language learning than trying to cram for an hour every few days.
learning it prefecture by prefecture is a nice hook, most apps just throw generic vocab at you with no sense of place. does the content touch on regional dialect differences at all (Kansai-ben vs standard Tokyo Japanese) or is it standardized Japanese wrapped in a geography theme
The cards feel really clean and the sessions are short enough that I'm not dreading opening the app, which is half the battle honestly.
Love the idea an the implementation!
Probably main page lacks some examples from the app before sending user to store.
the prefecture-by-prefecture structure is a nice hook, most vocab apps just throw everything at you in the same order. since Android is coming soon, will progress sync across platforms if someone switches, or does it start fresh on whatever device you're on
Why did you decide on Japanese? BTW, love the idea, actually anything with the learning potential has my upvote! :D
About Mainichi on Product Hunt
“Learn Japanese, one prefecture at a time.”
Mainichi launched on Product Hunt on July 18th, 2026 and earned 131 upvotes and 28 comments, placing #7 on the daily leaderboard. Learn 20,000+ Japanese words with a spaced-repetition system built for long-term memory. Playful, gamified sessions under 5 minutes a day — no boring textbooks. Mainichi skips the flashcard grind. Short, low-pressure sessions that fit into a real day — show up, relax into a round of vocab, and let your streak do the rest. Clean cards. Fast sessions. A progress bar that actually fills up. The interface gets out of the way so you can focus on the words.
Mainichi was featured in iOS (110.5k followers), Education (78.8k followers) and Languages (14.4k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 73k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Mainichi?
Mainichi was hunted by Michał Paczyński. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how Mainichi stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Michał Paczyński