Kanji
Once you can read hiragana and katakana, kanji is what comes next. Tap any kanji to watch it drawn stroke by stroke, with its readings and the words it appears in. Free, no sign-up.
Where to start
Levels are a guide only. The JLPT has never published an official kanji list.
Numbers, days, directions, the body: the kanji you meet first
Everyday actions, and the words on shops and stations
The kanji that start appearing in news and work documents
What you need to read full articles
The kanji of specialist writing
285 kanji are here now, and more are being added.
What to know before you start
About 2,000 kanji cover daily life
Japanese schools teach 2,136 standard kanji. But the ones on station signs and shop windows are heavily repeated, so the first 300 or so already make a lot of everyday Japanese readable.
Most kanji have two kinds of reading
The on reading came from Chinese; the kun reading is the Japanese word the kanji was assigned to. Trying to memorize readings on their own is where most learners stall. Learn the example words instead.
Stroke order is not arbitrary
Once you have it, you can write kanji you have never seen without the shape falling apart. The rule is roughly top to bottom, left to right. Here you can watch each stroke appear.
What you learn comes back before you forget it
Kanji you mark as learned return the next day, then after three days, a week, and so on. Only what is due shows up, so the pile never grows out of hand.
Today's reviewCannot read hiragana yet?
Start there instead. Hiragana and katakana are 46 characters each, and most people can read them within a few days.
Start with hiraganaNext step
Other languages
The same pages exist for every language here.