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Japanese popup dictionary 2026: Rikaikun, 10ten Reader, and immit compared
A Japanese popup dictionary is a browser extension or app that shows a word's reading and definition when you hover over or tap it. The three Chrome-side options most readers run in 2026 are Rikaikun (free, the original of the category), 10ten Reader (free, lookup-only, also on Firefox and Edge), and immit (lookup with built-in spaced repetition). Yomichan and its successor Yomitan are the parent of the category and get their own posts. On mobile or web, Takoboto, Imiwa?, and Jisho.org cover the same need without a browser extension.
This post is for the reader who already knows what a popup dictionary is, has tried one or two of them, and is doing one last audit before deciding what stays installed. It is not a beginner's introduction to Japanese.
What a Japanese popup dictionary does
Hover a word in a Japanese text. The dictionary reads the page, finds where one word ends and the next begins (this is non-trivial in Japanese because there are no spaces between words), conjugates the verb back to its base form if needed, and shows the reading plus a short English definition. You read the next sentence. The word is now slightly more familiar than it was thirty seconds ago.
That is the entire feature. Almost every product in this category does it within five milliseconds of hover. The differences are in what happens after the hover: do you save the word, does it come back to you in review, on which device, with what setup cost.
The reason the category exists is comprehension drift. If you stop reading every twenty seconds to look up a word in a separate tab, you lose the thread of the sentence, then the paragraph, then the chapter, and eventually the book. A popup dictionary keeps you inside the text. Instant hover lookups reveal readings and translations without interrupting reading flow, which is the entire point. Japanese popup dictionaries eliminate the need to manually look up unknown words and support uninterrupted reading of native Japanese materials. Utilizing popup dictionaries enhances sustained comprehension and improves reading retention.
What the dictionary actually contains
Most popup dictionaries on this page run on the same open-source data spine: JMdict for the Japanese-English dictionary, KanjiDic for individual kanji, and EDRDG's name database for proper nouns. JMdict has roughly 200,000 entries, including verb conjugations, common idioms, and a vast collection of example sentences. KanjiDic covers around 13,000 kanji with readings (both on'yomi and kun'yomi), JLPT level, and frequency. The English definitions are community-maintained.
When you hover a word, the extension is doing three things in sequence: tokenization (splitting the text into words), deconjugation (turning 食べていた back into 食べる), and lookup (finding 食べる in JMdict). Intelligent deconjugation in language tools automatically breaks down complex, inflected verbs into their base forms, which is why hovering an inflected verb gives you the dictionary entry rather than a "word not found" error.
What advanced popup dictionaries add
Beyond the basic hover-and-show flow, advanced popup dictionaries layer in additional reading aids. Some show kanji stroke order and reading information when you click or hover a single kanji character, which is useful for higher-level students still building handwriting recognition. Some display pitch accent information, showing whether a word's accent falls on the first, second, or later mora — a feature serious learners use to refine pronunciation. Integrated tools in advanced popup dictionaries may include native audio playback and text-to-speech pronunciation, so the reader can hear the word as well as see the reading.
Two more layers appear in the better tools. Many kanji reading tools utilize spaced repetition systems (SRS) to help learners retain vocabulary and kanji more effectively over time. Some kanji reading tools allow users to customize their learning experience by adding various dictionaries, which can include kanji stroke order and example sentences to enhance understanding.
Not every popup dictionary supports every layer. The comparison below makes the gaps explicit.
How the three core tools compare at a glance
| Feature | Rikaikun | 10ten Reader | immit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | Free |
| Browsers | Chrome | Chrome, Firefox, Edge | Chrome |
| Mobile | None | iOS app, Firefox Android | Considering |
| Desktop app | No | No | Optional (Mac, Windows, Linux) |
| Built-in SRS | No | No | Yes (FSRS) |
| Saves words | No | Anki via AnkiConnect | Yes (one click) |
| Anki integration | No current bridge | AnkiConnect | Not needed (built-in) |
| Furigana | On hover | On hover, optional page-wide | On the headword inside the popup |
| Pitch accent | No | Yes | Not currently |
| Click-to-hear audio | No | Yes | Yes (TTS) |
| PDF in browser | No | Yes (clipboard mode) | Not supported |
| Offline | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Account required | No | No | No |
| Last release (May 2026) | 3.2.30 | 1.26.1 (Dec 2025) | Continuous |
Three honest readings of this table. Rikaikun is the smallest, simplest, and most stable. 10ten Reader is the broadest in browser coverage and the closest drop-in for someone leaving Yomitan. immit is the only entry that closes the loop from lookup to memory in one tool.
Browser extensions: the three core options
Rikaikun
Rikaikun is a Japanese reading Google Chrome extension that helps users read kanji while providing English definitions, making it useful for navigating Japanese websites and reading online content. Rikaikun helps the reader who wants lookup and only lookup. It started in 2009 as a Chrome port of the older Rikaichan Firefox add-on, and almost two decades later it is still shipping. The May 5, 2026 release (3.2.29) and the May 13 follow-up (3.2.30) landed days before this post went into draft.
What Rikaikun does well: hovers a word, gives you the reading and an English definition, deconjugates verbs back to the dictionary form, and gets out of the way. Setup is essentially zero. Install the extension, the popup appears on the next Japanese page you load. No dictionary downloads, no settings panel that takes thirty minutes to configure. The extension also handles katakana loanwords gracefully and recognizes furigana when the page already has it.
What Rikaikun does not do: save words, remind you of words, sync between devices, or include any retention mechanism. The reader who learns this way is the reader who reads enough that words become familiar through sheer repeated exposure. That is a real strategy at high reading volume but stops working when the reader wants to be deliberate about which words stick.
If you are evaluating Rikaikun against the other two on this page: choose Rikaikun if you read several pages of Japanese a day, do not want to maintain flashcards, and prefer your tools small and stable.
10ten Reader
10ten Reader is the modern, actively-maintained continuation of Rikaichamp, which was itself a continuation of Rikaisama. The naming history is confusing on purpose: each generation of maintainers has renamed the project rather than fork it. The current maintainer is Birchill, and the latest Chrome release is 1.26.1 from December 24, 2025.
The two things 10ten Reader does better than anyone else in this category are browser coverage and parsing. Browser coverage first: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, an iOS app, and a Firefox Android build. For a reader who switches between a Chrome laptop, a Firefox desktop, and an iOS phone, 10ten is the only option that follows them across all three.
Parsing means 10ten handles compound verbs, copula forms, and i-adjective conjugations cleanly. It also displays pitch accent and plays audio playback for entries that have it. The dictionary data is JMdict plus KanjiDic plus the EDRDG name database, the same open-source spine the rest of the category runs on, but the parser on top of it is one of the best. 10ten can also pull from the clipboard (press Alt+Shift to look up whatever you have copied), which is useful for PDF readers and news sites where hover does not work.
What 10ten Reader does not do is retention. It exports to Anki via AnkiConnect, which works well if you already have an Anki setup. It does not have a built-in SRS, does not track which words you have already looked up, and does not remind you that you saw 厳しい four times last week and still cannot read it. For most readers that gap is filled by Anki. For some readers the gap is what they were trying to escape.
Choose 10ten Reader if you are leaving Yomitan and want the closest equivalent without the Manifest V3 history. Choose it if you read across more than one browser. Choose it if you already have an Anki workflow you like and you only need a clean lookup layer to feed it.
immit
immit is the popup dictionary we built. We will try to be honest about it.
The shape of immit is the same as the other two: hover a word in Chrome, see the reading and definition. What is different is what happens next. One click saves the word, with the sentence it came from, to a deck. That deck is reviewed on built-in FSRS spaced repetition that lives inside immit itself, not in a separate Anki install. The same lookups and the same review schedule are also available in an optional desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux, and everything works offline. No account is required, and everything is free; syncing across devices is free too with an optional account.
The reason we built immit is not a feature gap. The category already had Yomitan plus Anki, and that combination is more flexible than anything we will ever ship. The reason is the setup tax. Yomitan plus Anki plus AnkiConnect plus a card template plus a deck plus a sync schedule is a system. The system is real, the system works, and the system stops about half the people who try to set it up. That is the user immit is for: the reader who wants to look up a word, save it without thinking, and review it later without configuring anything.
immit's popup shows the headword's reading as furigana, an English definition with part of speech, an example sentence, and a click-to-hear pronunciation button. immit covers both JP-to-EN and EN-to-JP lookup directions, and also includes JP-to-JP (monolingual / 国語) and EN-to-EN dictionaries. Pitch accent is not currently displayed in the popup; Yomitan and 10ten Reader cover that gap if it is important to you. Page-wide auto-furigana (an overlay above every kanji on the page) is out of scope; immit's furigana lives inside the popup, on the headword only.
What immit does not do as well as the others. It does not run on Firefox or Edge yet. It does not have the years of community customization that Rikaikun and 10ten have accumulated. It does not have an iOS app yet. If those constraints matter to you, the comparison should not flatter us — they are real.
What immit does that the other two do not: close the loop in one place. Hover, save, review, all in the same tool, no bridge to maintain.
If you want to try immit, the Chrome extension is free and works offline. The desktop app is optional, for reviewing outside the browser. No account required.
Anki integration: where each tool stands
Anki is the spaced repetition system most Japanese learners eventually end up using, alone or layered on top of a popup dictionary. Each of the three tools above relates to Anki differently.
Rikaikun does not currently ship an Anki bridge. The Rikai family historically included one — Rikaisama supported a real-time Anki import flow that wrote cards as you hovered, and that was one of the reasons it had a devoted following. Rikaikun has not carried that forward. A reader who wants to remember a word looked up in Rikaikun has to type it into Anki by hand.
10ten Reader integrates with Anki through AnkiConnect, an add-on for Anki that exposes a local API on port 8765. Once AnkiConnect is installed (free, from the official Anki add-on directory), 10ten's options panel lets you map fields: the word goes in the front, the reading goes in the back, the example sentence goes wherever you want it. After setup, pressing a configured key during hover writes a new card to your chosen Anki deck. Setup takes about ten minutes if you already have Anki.
immit replaces Anki rather than integrating with it. The FSRS schedule, the deck, the review interface, and the daily queue all live inside immit. There is no AnkiConnect, no Anki install required, and no card template to configure. The trade-off is real: a reader with years of Anki investment will find immit's built-in SRS less flexible than Anki's plugin ecosystem. A reader without that investment will find immit faster to start. immit does not currently support Anki import.
Google Chrome: install, Manifest V3, and what changed in 2026
All three tools above are available on Google Chrome and all three currently run under Manifest V3, the extension manifest version Chrome made mandatory for new extensions in 2024 and for existing extensions through 2025. If you used a popup dictionary on Chrome before 2024 and stopped, the most likely reason is the Manifest V3 transition; the most likely fix is to reinstall a current version.
To install any of the three: open the Chrome Web Store, search the extension name, click Add to Chrome, and confirm. The extension appears in the top right of the Chrome toolbar. For Rikaikun and 10ten Reader, no further setup is required — the popup will appear on the next Japanese page you hover. For immit, the same applies: no account, no settings to configure before first use.
To enable an extension that has been disabled (which Chrome sometimes does silently during updates), navigate to chrome://extensions, find the extension in the list, and flip the toggle. If a release looks broken after an update, check the developer's GitHub for an open issue before assuming it is your install — the maintainers of all three projects are responsive on issue threads.
Yomichan, Yomitan, and where the category came from
Yomichan was the popup dictionary that defined the modern shape of the category. It was a Firefox and Chrome extension, free, open-source, with deeper customization than anything before it. Yomichan was a browser extension that allowed users to look up Japanese words with both their meanings and readings directly on web pages, enhancing the reading experience for learners. It sunset in February 2023 when the original maintainer stepped back.
Yomitan is the community-run fork that took over. It is still free, still open-source, and still the most-installed popup dictionary in the Japanese immersion community. It is also the most configurable, which is its strength for some readers and its barrier for others. Yomitan supports custom dictionary downloads (J-J dictionaries, specialized vocabulary lists, IT terms, medical terms), pitch accent overlays, audio sources, and an AnkiConnect bridge for everyone who already lives in Anki.
Yomitan is not on the comparison table above because it is the parent of this category, not a peer to the three small popup dictionaries. If your question is "should I use Yomitan or one of the three above," the right answer is in our Yomitan alternative 2026 post, which is the deeper comparison. The short version: Yomitan if you enjoy configuration as part of the hobby, one of the three above if you do not.
Furigana overlays and other complementary tools
A furigana overlay is different from a popup dictionary, even though the two often live in the same browser. Where a popup dictionary shows readings on hover (one word at a time), a furigana overlay shows readings above every kanji on the page (all words at once).
IPA Furigana is a Google Chrome extension that adds furigana above kanji on web pages, assisting higher-level students in reading kanji in various online sources. IPA Furigana sits well alongside any of the three popup dictionaries above: the overlay handles passive reading of kanji you already know, the popup dictionary handles active lookup of words you do not. A reader who is mid-intermediate — comfortable with most JLPT N3 kanji but still hitting unknowns on news sites and anime subtitles — often runs both.
If you want furigana only for selected text (rather than every kanji on the page), most popup dictionaries can show furigana inside the popup itself, which is enough for many readers. immit takes this approach: the headword's reading is shown as furigana in the popup, and there is no page-wide overlay.
Mobile and web: Takoboto, Imiwa?, and Jisho
When you cannot run a browser extension — on a phone, a tablet, or someone else's computer — the same category exists in three other shapes.
Takoboto is a Japanese dictionary app available for Android that allows users to search in hiragana, katakana, romaji, and kanji, featuring kanji search by radicals and example sentences. It is free, runs offline, and is the most widely-recommended Android Japanese dictionary among advanced learners. Takoboto is not a popup dictionary in the browser-extension sense; it is a destination app you open when you encounter a word elsewhere and want to look it up.
Imiwa? is a free Japanese dictionary app for iOS that supports searches by hiragana, katakana, romaji, and radicals, and includes features like kanji stroke order and example sentences. Imiwa? is the iOS counterpart to Takoboto: comparable depth, comparable interface conventions, free, offline. Both apps cover the dictionary need on phones where browser extensions do not run.
Jisho.org is a widely used Japanese dictionary that allows users to search in English, Japanese, romaji, kanji, and radicals, providing example sentences and conjugations. Jisho is the web destination dictionary most learners eventually land on through Google. It does not require an account, has no popup behavior on other sites, and works on any browser including mobile Safari and Chrome on Android. Jisho is what readers use when they have a word, want a definition, and do not need the lookup to be inline with reading.
Modern language tools can integrate with mobile readers or screen overlays, extending their utility beyond desktop browsers. On iOS, for example, the system-wide Look Up feature can fall back to Imiwa? when configured. On Android, Takoboto's search-from-clipboard mode and the OS-level share menu cover most cross-app lookup needs. These are partial substitutes for an in-page popup dictionary, but they close the gap when a popup is not available.
If you are looking specifically for an Android popup dictionary on the web, 10ten Reader runs in Firefox Android, which is the closest equivalent to the desktop experience. Chrome on Android does not support browser extensions, so the Chrome extension is not an Android route for any of the three tools on this page. immit has no mobile app; you can review saved words on a phone through immit's web app, but lookup needs a desktop browser.
Learn Japanese: where popup dictionaries fit in a wider stack
Popup dictionaries are one piece of a learner's stack, not the whole thing. For most intermediate-to-advanced Japanese learners, the stack looks like this: grammar reference (Bunpro, Renshuu, or a textbook), kanji curriculum (WaniKani or a frequency-ordered Anki deck), popup dictionary plus SRS (one of the three above), and reading material (news sites like NHK News Web Easy, light novels, manga, anime with Japanese subtitles).
The popup-dictionary-plus-SRS layer is where most reading-driven vocabulary acquisition happens. The principle behind it is simple: instead of memorizing a pre-made vocabulary list, save the words you actually encounter while reading native material. The deck grows naturally, weighted toward the words you will see again. This is sometimes called sentence mining, and it is the strategy most of the Refold and TheMoeWay communities recommend.
If you are new to this strategy, the short version: pick the popup dictionary that matches your retention plan. Lookup-only if your retention plan is volume (read enough that words become familiar). Lookup-plus-Anki if you already have Anki. Lookup-plus-built-in-SRS if you want one tool to handle both.
Which Japanese dictionary should you install?
Three readers, three answers.
If you read several pages of Japanese a day and do not want to think about flashcards, install Rikaikun. It is small, stable, free, and gets out of the way.
If you switch between browsers, want intelligent parsing and pitch accent, and already have an Anki workflow you trust, install 10ten Reader. It is the closest current heir to Yomitan for people who want lookup-only across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
If the Yomitan-plus-Anki setup tax stopped you the first time, or if your Anki deck has become the thing you avoid opening, install immit. The whole point is that lookup and memory live in the same tool, with nothing to bridge.
You can also install more than one. None of them conflict on a page. Most readers in this category end up with two installed and one of them turned off, until the day they decide which.
FAQ
What is the best Japanese popup dictionary for Chrome in 2026?
A Japanese popup dictionary is a browser extension or app that shows a word's reading and definition when you hover over or tap it. The three Chrome options most readers run in 2026 are Rikaikun (the original, free, lookup-only), 10ten Reader (free, lookup-only, also on Firefox and Edge), and immit (lookup with built-in spaced repetition, free). Yomitan is the parent of the category and is covered in a separate post. On mobile or web, Takoboto on Android, Imiwa? on iOS, and Jisho.org on the web cover the same need without a browser extension.
Is 10ten Reader the same as Rikaikun?
No, but they share an ancestor. The order is: Rikaichan (2007, Firefox), Rikaikun (2009, Chrome), Rikaisama (2012, Firefox fork), Rikaichamp (2017, after Firefox dropped XUL add-ons), 10ten Reader (2021, current name). Rikaikun is the Chrome line, still maintained by Erek Speed. 10ten Reader is the Firefox-first line that has since added Chrome and Edge. They are cousins, not duplicates.
Does Rikaikun still work in Chrome after Manifest V3?
Yes. Rikaikun is actively maintained and ships releases under Manifest V3. Version 3.2.30 was released on May 13, 2026. If your Rikaikun extension stops working, the most common cause is that Chrome auto-disabled it during an update and is waiting for you to re-enable it in chrome://extensions.
Does Rikaikun support Anki?
Not currently. Rikaikun does not ship an AnkiConnect bridge or a comparable export. Some older members of the Rikai family (notably Rikaisama) historically included real-time Anki import; that feature has not carried forward into Rikaikun. If Anki integration matters to you, 10ten Reader (AnkiConnect-based) is the closer fit; if you want to skip Anki entirely, immit has its own built-in SRS.
Which popup dictionary has built-in spaced repetition?
immit is the only Japanese popup dictionary in this comparison with built-in spaced repetition. Hover a word, click once to save, and the word is added to the FSRS review queue that lives inside immit. Rikaikun and 10ten Reader are lookup-only; for retention, both rely on the reader maintaining a separate Anki deck (10ten supports Anki export via AnkiConnect, Rikaikun does not currently have an Anki bridge).
Can I use 10ten Reader with Anki?
Yes. 10ten Reader integrates with Anki through AnkiConnect, an add-on for Anki that exposes a local API. Setup takes about ten minutes if you already have Anki installed: install AnkiConnect from the Anki add-on directory, configure the field mapping in 10ten's options, and saved words will populate the chosen deck.
Is immit free?
Yes. immit is free: lookup, one-click save, and the built-in FSRS review, with full offline support and no account required. Syncing across devices is free too with an optional account. There is no paid plan.
Do any of these work on Firefox or Edge?
10ten Reader works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Firefox Android, plus a separate iOS app. Rikaikun is Chrome-only. immit is currently Chrome-only on the browser side, with an optional desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
What is the best Japanese popup dictionary for Android?
For Android, the closest match to a browser popup dictionary is 10ten Reader running inside Firefox Android. As a standalone destination app, Takoboto is the most widely recommended free Japanese dictionary on Android, with hiragana, katakana, romaji, and kanji search, plus kanji search by radicals and example sentences. Chrome on Android does not support extensions, so neither Rikaikun nor immit have an Android route through the Chrome extension; immit has no mobile app (reviews work on a phone through its web app).
Does immit show pitch accent?
Not currently. Pitch accent is not in the popup today. If pitch accent is important to your study, 10ten Reader and Yomitan both show it; either can run alongside immit, since extensions do not conflict on the same page.
How do I switch from Rikaikun or 10ten Reader to immit without losing my saved words?
Rikaikun does not save words, so nothing to migrate from that side. For 10ten Reader, if you have been exporting to Anki via AnkiConnect, your saved vocabulary lives in your Anki deck rather than in 10ten itself. immit does not currently support direct Anki import. The practical path is to install immit alongside your current setup, start new lookups in immit, and keep reviewing your existing Anki deck until it naturally winds down.
Last updated: 2026-07-21