I'm trying to find titles and ISBNs for Japan's grade-school reading textbooks, and not getting anywhere. (I can't read Japanese, so maybe this explains it.) How should I search for these textbooks? I've tried stuff like "国語読本", and I find the likes of http://is.gd/dEqPS, which doesn't look like what I have in mind. (The books I've come across on amazon.co.jp have no previews, so I can't confirm that I've found what I'm looking for.)

If someone could point me in the right direction I'd greatly appreciate it.

(I understand that before WWII, reading textbooks were standardized throughout Japan: basically all Japanese kids learned to read from the same books. Is this still the case today? If so, there must be a list of these textbooks somewhere...)

I would say 国語教科書, and you can find a pdf list of the government approved ones:
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyou...293804.htm

However, it doesn't look like they're mostly available through distribution channels like Amazon.co.jp.

One thing you could try is the 10分で読める ("You can read it in 10 minutes!") series, which is a series of readers for each grade.　読書の時間　("Reading time") is another series of graded readers.

Fillanzea Wrote:I would say 国語教科書, and you can find a pdf list of the government approved ones:
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyou...293804.htm

Thanks! That's very helpful.