Menkyo Helper
Japan's Written Exam, in 12 Languages
Menkyo Helper is the study and procedure companion for the Japanese driving licence, in 12 languages. 1,100+ practice questions with an explanation for every answer, mock exams in the official format, real on-road lesson videos, a road-sign trainer, a car-paper scanner that reads 車検証 and 自賠責 expiry dates, deadline reminders, and step-by-step procedure guides for all 47 prefectures. Free on the web and on Google Play; Premium unlocks unlimited mock exams and the full lesson videos. New: Drive Coach builds a practice course on real roads near you and guides you by voice like an examiner, and Kageno, a small shadow study companion, explains your mistakes and helps you find your way around the app.
- Learn
An explanation for every question in your language, plus a study plan and a glossary of exam terms.
- Simulate
Timed exams that follow the real blueprint for each licence type, not a random question dump.
- Pass
Weakness tracking, sign drills, and prefecture guides that carry the process through to the licence centre.
- 1,100+Practice questions
- 5Licence tracks covered
- 12Interface languages
- 47Prefecture guides
Inside the App
Six real screens from Menkyo Helper, from choosing your licence track to drilling road signs.
Your track, your pace
Pick 仮免, 本免, 外免切替, 原付 or 二種 and the home screen shows exactly what to study next, with the exam format and your daily goal.
Answers that stay put
Every question comes with the rule behind it, in your language. Mistakes return through spaced repetition until they stick; listen mode reads questions aloud on the train.
Real lessons on the road
An instructor drives the real test-route situations — intersections, pedestrians, lane changes, stopping — with explanations. The first 30 seconds of every video are free.
Scan the car papers
Photograph the 車検証, the windshield sticker or the 自賠責 certificate; the app reads the expiry date and the plate for you to confirm. The photo is never stored.
Never miss a deadline
Licence renewal, 車検, 自賠責 and the beginner-mark year in one vault, with reminders 60, 30 and 7 days ahead in your language — for every car in the house. Scan your licence (a foreign one too, for the conversion path) and the app reads its dates for you; the photo is deleted right away, and reminders arrive as push notifications.
Signs until they are reflex
Flashcards, meaning quizzes and true/false drills for every official road sign, with the Japanese name and your language side by side.
What Makes It Different
Most licence apps are a question dump with a language toggle. This one is built around how the exam actually fails people.
- 01
Built for the wording traps
Japanese written exams fail people on phrasing, not knowledge. Explanations target the trap in the sentence, not just the rule.
- 02
Every track, one app
Provisional, full, moped, and foreign conversion each get their own question set, exam format, and procedure path.
- 03
Genuinely multilingual
Arabic, English, Japanese, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean, Filipino, Nepali, and Burmese - including full right-to-left layout, not a translated menu over an English app.
- 04
Study anywhere, even offline
With Premium, the question bank is saved on your device, so study continues on the train, in the waiting room, and at the licence centre — even with no signal.
- 05
Lesson videos and Premium
Protected, signed video streaming with a free 30-second preview. Premium — from $1.77 a week, $2.77 for two weeks or $4.77 a month, through Google Play or Stripe on the web — unlocks the full lessons, unlimited mock exams, Drive Coach and all-day Kageno.
- 06
Freshness as a system
A server job watches the e-Gov law API for every article the questions cite, and fetches all 47 prefectures' official police pages daily; any change or dead link is flagged in the app and to the team.
- 07
Drive Coach on real roads
Pick the situations you want to practise — railway crossings, hills, turns at traffic lights — and Drive Coach builds a course near you from self-hosted maps, then guides you by voice like an examiner. The phone's microphone hears your turn signals and its camera follows your head checks as you drive. Premium, with a free 5-minute trial every week.
- 08
Kageno, a shadow study companion
An original little character with two forms — a chibi ninja boy and a chibi fox-girl — who switch with a liquid-shadow effect. He lives in the app, cheers right answers, offers "I can explain" after a mistake and guides new users; once you sign in, he chats about the app and your study plan and opens the right page for you. Free for 3 minutes a day, all day with Premium.
From First Question to Licence in Hand
The product is organised around the learner's real journey, not around a feature list.
- 01
Pick the journey
Onboarding asks the goal - first licence, conversion, moped - and sets the track, prefecture, and exam format accordingly.
- 02
Study in chapters
Topic-by-topic practice with explanations, favourites, and sign drills between sessions to keep recognition sharp.
- 03
Rehearse the exam
Timed simulations use the real blueprint and pass mark; results feed a review list of exactly what went wrong.
- 04
Handle the procedure
Prefecture guides cover documents, fees, and the order of events at the licence centre on exam day.
Engineering Behind It
One React codebase ships three products: a fast web app, an installable PWA, and a native Android build - backed by a self-hosted API.
React
Component architecture with screen-level state and a shared design system across every surface.
Vite
Build tooling tuned for instant loads, code splitting, and prerendered SEO routes.
Tailwind
Utility-first styling with a strict brand token set and full right-to-left support.
Firebase
Native Google sign-in, cross-device progress, and a server-tracked daily exam allowance.
Capacitor
The same web build wrapped as a native Android app, with in-app billing rules and ad SDK integration.
Node API
A self-hosted Node API behind a VPS tunnel handles mail, subscriptions, and entitlement checks.
Positioning and Responsibility
A study aid must be honest about what it is - and careful with the people relying on it.
An unofficial study aid
Menkyo Helper claims no affiliation with the police or any licence centre. Questions are original practice material, and every procedure guide points back to the official source.
Free first, sustainable second
Every chapter can be studied for free — chapters unlock one at a time as you progress. Advertising and an optional Premium subscription (full access at once, offline study) cover hosting.
Want a product built this way?
Menkyo Helper is a 7‑MD product: researched, designed, engineered, and shipped in-house across web, PWA, and Android - in 12 languages.