Reddit mentions of Japanese for Busy People I: Romanized Version (Japanese for Busy People Series)

A good starting point is the app LingoDeer and its Japanese practise sessions. The first course is free and has a ton of content. Its practise focuses on teaching kana, grammar and building up vocabulary with a variety of guessing games so it's a very natural and entertaining way of learning. This makes it better than a lot of the language apps out there since their main focus is usually flashcard learning and hard memorisation.

Beyond that, Tae Kim's Japanese grammar is considered by many to be a fantastic way to learn the language. It builds up the necessary fundamentals for learning the language in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view (which means you think in japanese rather than english).

If you want to get a textbook the Genki guides are considered by many to be the quintessial classroom learning book. Japanese for Busy People is also a good one if you don't have a lot of spare time.

Beyond that, watch Japanese tv without subtitles to get used to them speaking. Japanese Children's tv is a great way to go about it. Try watching something like Chi's Sweet Home without subtitles on. There's also Japanese dramas on Netflix where you can turn the subtitles off.

You could start with Japanese for Busy People. There are two versions one that has romanized letters and the other with Kana (I have both versions). Also, Genki.

These are the textbooks and workbooks that I've had for classes. They are pretty thorough and they come with CDs so you can hear things properly pronounced..

At least for me, I got started by taking some continuing education classes at a local community college. That can be a bit pricey, depending on one's budget - it's about ~$200 per semester for me - but the structure really helps make sure that you start off with a strong footing in the language. The text book series we use during that class is Japanese for Busy People, which is pretty good - I can't give a comparative analysis between it and other text books, since it's the only one I've used, but I imagine that you could get at least a little out of it. Though having a teacher there who speaks the language natively to whom to ask questions is also a big help.

In terms of memorization, I can't recommend flash cards enough. Anki is an excellent free resource for that - it repeats cards depending on how long it takes you to get them correct, so it really helps to reinforce things that you're shaky on while clearing things you find easy off your plate quickly.

jisho.org is the main Japanese-English dictionary that I use. It's not something that you'll find too useful just starting out, but it's an invaluable resource once you've got some basic grammar and vocab under your belt.

I hope that's helpful. :)

Reading, writing, speaking, or a combination of the above? Why are you studying Japanese? How advanced do you want to be?

I'm currently learning some Japanese through self-study because of overseas work. Here's where I started:

• Hiragana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
  
• Katakana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/
  
• Basic Conversational Japanese: GENKI | Japanese for Busy People
  
• Other tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfCc00zmPZI

Buy a book like this one and read it after dinner, 1 hour per day. Show your coworkers and your boss that you are making an effort.

I am very interested in Situational Functional Japanese Vol 1 Drills.

As a way to pay it forward, I have a copy of Japanese For Busy People (Romanized Edition) to offer up. It is a pretty good intro for beginners. Also, なかむらさん has an amazing voice in the attached CD.

The workbook, "Japanese for Busy People" (get the romanji version) is good for when you're, well, busy.

I used it to study Japanese when I thought I was going to be teaching English there through the JET program before deciding to enlist instead. It's pretty good for basic stuff, it'll be helpful if you learn your katakana and hiragana on top of that as well. Just learn a few a day and you'll be golden.

http://www.textfugu.com/menu/ This website is pretty great for beginners. Its got good structure and the first "season" is free which will teach you hiragana and the basics of the language. Katakana used to be free too but I guess he changed it. I own a lifetime membership but I've long since finished whats available there. It will take you to about intermediate level if you finish the whole thing which can take a few months. I still jump back in and go over the things hes changed and the lessons hes added whenever I can.

This book series is also great, but its a little more detatched and really throws you right into the language, the first in the series teaches mostly survival Japanese and the next 2 really get into the meat of the language. I'm about 3/4ths through the second one.