How many kanji do you need to know?
· Avinash Kumar
Kanji Mnemonics runs on iPhone and iPad. The app is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
For general reading in Japan, the reference point is the jōyō list of 2,136 kanji. You do not need all of them to start: a few hundred lets you read simple, graded material, and around 2,000 covers most everyday text. Kanji alone never gets you there, though. Vocabulary and grammar decide whether you understand a sentence.
I build Kanji Mnemonics, the app mentioned below, so weigh my suggestions with that in mind.
The numbers that actually exist
- Jōyō kanji: 2,136. The official list of characters for general use, last revised in 2010. Newspapers and official documents stay mostly within it, and characters outside it often come with readings printed alongside.
- Kyōiku kanji: 1,026. The subset Japanese children learn in six years of primary school.
- JLPT levels: no official list. The commonly quoted figures, roughly 100 for N5, 300 for N4, 650 for N3, 1,000 for N2 and 2,000 for N1, come from the pre-2010 test and from study materials. Treat them as rough guides.
What each stage feels like
With the first hundred or so kanji you can read numbers, days, dates and many signs. A few hundred is enough for graded readers and simple messages. Somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 most everyday text stops being a wall, although you still look things up. On r/LearnJapanese, learners who have been through it make the same point again and again: knowing a kanji is not the same as knowing every word it appears in, and plenty of important words are written in kana anyway.
A sensible way to set targets
- Set your target by what you want to read, not by a total. If it is the JLPT, follow its levels in order.
- Learn vocabulary with the kanji. A kanji you meet in two or three real words sticks better than one learned alone.
- Read early. Graded readers and short articles show you which kanji matter for you.
Where the app fits
Kanji Mnemonics covers JLPT N5 to N1 and gives each kanji one keyword, one story and one picture, plus readings and example words. Two-way flashcards, a Today’s Kanji widget and progress per level help you work towards a target you can see. It works offline. Lesson 1 is free; Pro is a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase.
Read next: JLPT N5 kanji list, N4 and N3 kanji and a study timeline from N5 to N2.
Questions people ask
- How many kanji are there in total?
- Tens of thousands exist in large dictionaries, but the official list for everyday use in Japan, the jōyō kanji, has 2,136 characters since its 2010 revision. That list is the realistic ceiling for general reading.
- Does the JLPT publish an official kanji list?
- No. Since the test was revised in 2010 it has not published official kanji or vocabulary lists. The numbers you see per level are estimates based on the older test and on textbooks.
Kanji Mnemonics
Picture-book mnemonics for every JLPT kanji, N5 to N1, with a Today's Kanji widget.
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