When I first moved to Japan, I read that watching Japanese TV shows would greatly accelerate my listening and reading skills even if I were to watch it for just 30 minutes every day. Determined, I picked up my sharehouse’s remote control in search of one of those variety show programs I always used to see memes of. As I tried to make out the characters on the remote itself, I found myself getting more and more frustrated. It just wasn’t as intuitive as I thought.
The basics of Japanese remote controls
Compared to the ones I used to use in the Philippines, Japan has at least 10 more buttons.
There are a lot of options that can help improve your reading speed in Japan like adding subtitles (字幕) to whatever program you happen to be watching. There is also an option to switch the audio from Japanese to the original language it was recorded in (音声切換).
| English | Japanese | Romaji |
| Power (On/Off) | 電源 | dengen |
| Switching the TV input (HDMI/cable) | 入力切換 | nyuryoku kirikae |
| Subtitle | 字幕 | jimaku |
| Channel | チャンネル | channeru |
| Volume | 音量 | onryou |
| Mute | 消音 | shouon |
| Confirm | 決定 | kettei |
| Switch to English (or original language) | 音声切換 | onsei kirikae |
| Screen size adjustment | ワイド切換 | waido kirikae |
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