Japan Know How archive
Hiragana, katakana and kanji: what each script is for, how loanwords get reshaped on the way into Japanese, and which romanization system to trust when three of them disagree. Practical explanations for readers who want to understand the machinery, not memorize charts.
Writing & Language
Japanese adults sometimes forget how to handwrite characters they still read and type every day. That gap reveals a practical lesson for learners: recognition and handwritten recall are separate skills.
Writing & Language
The JLPT measures vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening across five levels, but it includes no speaking or writing section. Here is what American test takers need to know about registration, scoring, certificates, and the abilities the exam leaves untested.
Writing & Language
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.
Writing & Language
Radical, stroke count, handwriting pad or phone camera. Four ways to look up a kanji you have never seen, ranked by how fast they actually are.
Writing & Language
The same kanji can sound completely different from one word to the next. This guide explains the compound-versus-okurigana shortcut, compares on’yomi with kun’yomi, and shows the exceptions that make guessing dangerous.
Writing & Language
Not the school order and not the JLPT order. Which kanji repay learning first, how the readings work, and what to do with characters you only read.
Writing & Language
Japanese puts no spaces between words, so the switch from kanji to kana is what marks where a word starts. The division of labor, in real sentences.
Writing & Language
Handwriting recognition, dictionary lookup and legible fast writing all depend on stroke order. Where it matters and where nobody will ever know.
Writing & Language
A small tsu doubles the next consonant and a small ya merges two sounds into one beat. Get the size wrong and you have written a different word.
Writing & Language
Four look-alike pairs, a long-vowel bar with no hiragana equivalent, and words you have to decode back into English. Where katakana really breaks down.
