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Japan Know How archive

joyo kanji

Writing & Language

The Characters the Government Signs Off On

Japan’s official character system is not one master list. Learn how the 2,136 commonly used kanji differ from the 1,026 school characters and the separate 863-character list used for personal names.

Megan Rothwell

Writing & Language

How Many Kanji Do You Actually Need?

The official answer is 2,136. The useful answers are thirty, a hundred, and a thousand, depending on what you want to read. What each threshold buys, and the official lists explained.

Megan Rothwell