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For me, it takes a second or two to read the characters (although with katakana, it takes me 5 seconds since I'm not that fast at memorizing katakana yet. I memorized them, but it takes time for me to recall what that a certain katakana is. With kanji, it'll probably take me 10 seconds at first, seeing how I just started Japanese 1 classes), then another 5-10 seconds to translate Japanese into English. So for me, it would take me about 15-20 seconds to read a single line in a Japanese sentence, which was the same amount of seconds I took when I read children's books as a kid (I can now read at around 600wpm ^^.)

I'm hoping that with time, I can someday glance at a Japanese sentence and know what it's saying with the snap of a finger, and be able to read at the same rate as when I'm reading English texts.

So what about you guys? How fast can you read Japanese?

I don't know many kanji yet (~20), but for kana pretty quickly, like just as fast as English (almost), but I usually read aloud and understand what's written from sound rather than.. well, writing. Still, when I'm watching a trailer or whatever in Japanese (I do a lot to translate for my sister) and text flashes on the screen for three sounds and then is gone again, I'm surprised by how I can actually read it, silently, to myself, and understand it, just as I would English. So, I suspose if I have to, I can read pretty quickly... I've gotta challenge myself a little more. >__>;
So basically (>>;;), when I must, just as quickly as I can read English.

Hmmmmmm well it depends on what it is written in. If it is just Hiragana, I can probably read it in 3-5 seconds depending on if I recognize the word or not. Kanji it depends on if I know it or not and Katakana I can't read at all. sweatdrop

my hiragana is okay..... I'm kind of a sucky reader when it comes to japanese. But then again I just start learning. I'm about as new as newbies come. Working on it though...

There's a difference between reading and understanding what you're reading of course. I can read hiragana/katakana/kanji I know at a pretty decently fast rate, but I am slower at it because chances are I am also trying to figure out its overall meaning at the same time, and that hampers my reading speed significantly.

I'm really fluent in Hiragana and katakana, but it goes slow when there are coming Kanji that I don't know yet ^^;
that's why I love to read the children books!! they only have hiragana and katakana ^^ and they are like fairy tales, so cute ^^

oh and my teacher said I read really beautiful .. redface

I barely can read at all... crying
I just know a few letters in kanji but I can only speak them in chinese not japanese