Do you all know how big Japan is? In fact, it measures about 3,000 km in both directions, east to west and north to south. Each region has its own climate, environment, and culture. Here is a collection we made of local sites including news that you can read in 'easy Japanese'.
Yasashii Nihongo News (News in Easy Japanese) from Miyagi

The Tohoku Region is just a little south of Hokkaido.
News from Miyagi and Tohoku are written in easy-to-understand Japanese.
You can also listen to the news with sound to practice your listening comprehension.
Tohoku is famous for delicious fruit and rice.

The website comes with ruby but you can turn it off and read without it, to practice understanding kanji.

Screen with no ruby on the kanji.
There is a Google Map at the end of each article for you to check where the story comes from and read the original.
There are also worksheets(PDF) available for you to check your understanding.


Yasashii Nihongo de Yomu Nishinippon Shimbun (The Nishinippon Shimbun in Easy Japanese)
You can read news from Fukuoka and other parts of Kyushu in easy-to-understand Japanese and kanji with ruby.
I absolutely love Kyushu's ramen!

There is a list of the news. (You can also change the order from oldest to newest.)

There are many articles so why not get to know Western Japan while practicing your reading comprehension?
This is news about Kyushu.

You can read part of the original article.

If you want to read the entire article, you'll need to register as a member (for a fee).
Yasashii Nihongo Kochi Newspaper
Next is Shikoku. This is news from 'Kochi', the largest prefecture in Shikoku, in easy-to-read Japanese.
You can see which ones are written in easy Japanese, at a glance.
You can't talk about Kochi without mentioning bonito and Ryoma Sakamoto!

Here is an article about the population of Kochi Prefecture.

It's good reading practice because you can use the graphs and numbers to give you a better understanding of the content.
It might be interesting to compare Kochi Prefecture with Tokyo.
In addition to the current news, you can find a lot of information about cultural activities in Kochi, Kochi's foreign residents, relations with foreign countries, and various other topics.

Japanese language learning site, Iwate wo Hanasou (Let's Talk Iwate)

Lastly, lets head back to Tohoku.
This site is not a news site but has content that will help you study Japanese while leaning about 'Iwate Prefecture'.
I want to try Iwate's 'wanko soba noodles'…
In addition to Japanese and English, this site also has Chinese and Vietnamese.

Vietnamese
You can also learn about the cold climate that is typical of Iwate, while learning Japanese.
Let's take a look at 'Samusa-towa'? (What is it to be cold?) under Fuyu-wo-shirou (Learn about Winter).

There are three topics: Feeling Cold, Winter Climate, and Winter Weather Forecast, each with a vocabulary list provided.
There is a quiz (riddle) at the beginning of each one to help you get thinking.

After that, there are activities for each topic.

Levels are indicated so you can study with the one that suits you best.
Some of the contents also come with audio, so you can learn while reading, listening to, and speaking Japanese.

What do you think? I hope you enjoy finding out about Japan's local information and attractions that you don't always see in the big cities!