Kantan

Kantan is an open-source Japanese dictionary and learning tool for Android

Android will become a locked-down platform, FIGHT BACK!

Installation

Build Variants

Feature	Full	FOSS
Google Play Services	Required	Not Required
Internet Access	Required (One-time)	Not Required
Handwriting Detection	Yes	No

The full app is recommended for most users.

App Description

Kantan is a free and open source Japanese dictionary and learning tool designed to make studying simple, intuitive, and accessible. Search right away using words (English), kanji, rōmaji, or even by drawing characters directly on your screen. From there, Kantan helps you explore meanings, readings, and usage without friction. You can also easily review characters and practice recognition whenever you like.

Kantan helps you learn Japanese your way—simply, effectively, and for free (no ads, fully open source).

Features:

• Fast and reliable Japanese dictionary with word and kanji lookup
• Draw characters to search when you don’t know how to type them
• Add words to favorites and other custom lists
• Stroke-order diagrams to learn how to write kanji correctly
• Multiple readings and meanings for each entry
• Example sentences to understand context
• Clean, distraction-free interface designed for learning

Security & Verification

To ensure the integrity of the app, you can verify the signing certificate fingerprint. This fingerprint should match regardless of the version:

Developer Certificate Fingerprint (SHA-256):

B0:02:1B:BA:B4:39:0B:92:32:2F:AC:E5:0F:11:88:DF:BA:40:61:8E:9E:DA:EF:E7:8B:01:63:29:B5:DB:D6:37

Package Name

dev.mariinkys.kantan

APK Verification

Every release includes a unique SHA-256 hash of the specific APK file in the Release Notes. You can use AppVerifier to compare the installed app against these values.

Build Instructions

1. Create Main Assets Folder: mkdir -p app/src/main/assets/
2. Extract Kanji Assets: unzip assets/kanji.zip -d app/src/main/assets
3. Extract Database: unzip assets/databases.zip -d app/src/main/assets
4. Compile the App: ./gradlew assembleFullRelease assembleFossRelease

Copyright and Licensing

• The dictionary words and kanji come from the JMDict and KANJIDIC files owned by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (www.edrdg.org), and are used in conformance with the Group's license.

• The example sentences come from the projects Tatoeba and Tanaka Corpus.

• The Kanji strokes information are from KanjiVG provided by Ulrich Apel at kanjivg.tagaini.net.

• Kantan specifically uses the JMDict and KANJIDIC files provided by Yomitan

Copyright 2026 © Alex Marín

Released under the terms of the GPL-3.0