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. Since October 2026 it has a calmer design: Home fits on one screen with a single Next up button and a road of chapters, and everything else sits in five tabs: Home, Exam, Guide, Tools and You. Inside: 1,100+ practice questions with an explanation for every answer, mock exams in the official format, 154 road signs, a personal procedure guide for all 47 prefectures, real lesson videos, Scan me for car papers, Japanese signs and letters, deadline reminders, a daily streak and a weekly leaderboard. Drive Coach builds a practice course on real roads and judges your driving like an examiner, and Kageno, a small shadow companion, explains your mistakes. Free on the web and on Google Play; Premium unlocks everything at once.
- 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
Eight real screens from the redesigned app, captured at phone size: Home, a lesson, the exam, the guide, driving, Scan me, road signs and the weekly leaderboard.
One screen, one next step
Home fits on one screen: your track, your daily goal, one Next up button that continues your chapter (or your due reviews first), and the road of chapters ahead. Numbers come after a session, as a reward, not as a wall of zeros.
Learn with an answer after every question
Every chapter has a Learn mode, with the explanation shown after every answer, and a Chapter quiz that saves the explanations for the end. Every question shows the Japanese term, can be read aloud, starred or reported, and Kageno keeps you company.
The exam, one tab away
Mock exams follow the official format of each track; for 仮免 that is 50 questions in 30 minutes with a 90% pass mark. A readiness ring shows how close you are, a free 10-question mini mock needs no sign-in, and a topic assessment finds your weak spots first.
Your path, step by step
The procedure guide shows only the steps your goal needs, for your prefecture: the current step, a checklist of what to bring, your licence centre and the official sources, each in its own tab. A small line tells you when the rules were last checked.
Ready for the driving test
Three ways to prepare for the practical test: Drive Coach on real roads near you, lesson videos of the real Kadoma (Osaka) course with an instructor, and the Menkyo Drive game, coming soon. Kageno rides along.
Scan me: signs, letters and deadlines
Point your camera at a road sign or marking and Scan me explains the rule; point it at a fine, a police or licence-centre letter, a 車検 or tax notice and it reads it in your language. The same screen keeps your licence renewal, 車検 and 自賠責 dates with a countdown. Guests get 1 scan a day, signed-in users 5, Premium unlimited, and photos are never stored.
154 signs until they are reflex
Flashcards, choose the meaning, choose the sign, and true/false rules for every official sign and road marking, with the Japanese name beside your language.
A weekly leaderboard, nicknames only
Every correct answer earns points for the weekly leaderboard, which resets each week so a newcomer can still reach the podium. Only nicknames are shown, never names or photos, and you can change yours at any time.
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
A calm design that brings you back
Rebuilt in October 2026 after watching new users get lost: a warm cream look in the logo's green and sun yellow, one calm photo per screen, big buttons and gentle motion. A streak flame and a weekly leaderboard (points for studying, nicknames only, never real names) reward you after you study, not before.
- 05
Lesson videos and Premium
Protected, signed video streaming with free previews. 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 every lesson video, unlimited mock exams, Drive Coach, all-day Kageno and offline study: the question bank is kept encrypted on your device, so study continues on the train or at the licence centre with no signal.
- 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
Drive Coach builds a test-like course on real roads near you and gives the instructions in an examiner's voice. Put the phone on the dashboard and it judges your drive the way the practical test does, starting at 100 with a pass at 70: the camera follows your head checks and mirror checks, and the microphone listens for your blinker. The analysis runs on the phone. Premium, with 1 free minute a day.
- 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
Home's Next up button continues your chapter, or your due reviews first. Each chapter is a quiz with an explanation after every answer, and sign drills 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
One component tree for every screen, with the v2 design system: cream surfaces, the logo's green and sun yellow as tokens, Tailwind utilities and full right-to-left layout.
Vite
Build tooling tuned for instant loads, code splitting, and prerendered SEO routes.
Cloudflare
Since October 2026 the web app is served from Cloudflare Pages at the edge, and the old Firebase address forwards to menkyo.7-md.com.
Firebase
Google sign-in, cross-device progress in the Realtime Database, and App Check to keep bots out.
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 serves the question bank chapter by chapter, checks subscriptions and the daily mock-exam allowance, runs the scans, Kageno's chat and the weekly leaderboard, and watches the law and prefecture pages for changes.
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.