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Learn Japanese Kanji

Radicals, readings and real words, building toward the 2,136 jōyō kanji.

Free to start. Built from a single prompt. No credit card.

Kanji are the Chinese-derived characters that carry most meaning in written Japanese. The Japanese government's jōyō list has 2,136 characters for everyday use, and schools teach 1,026 of them across six years of elementary school. Each kanji is built from components called radicals, such as 氵, meaning water, in 海 (sea). Most have an on reading from Chinese and a kun reading native to Japanese, and words like 電車 (densha, train) combine them. Learnr builds a personalized kanji course from one prompt and teaches characters through short, interactive lessons with spaced review.

How to learn Japanese Kanji, step by step

Know hiragana and katakana first. Kanji make sense only alongside kana, since readings, okurigana and furigana are written in hiragana. If kana is not automatic yet, spend a couple of weeks on it before starting kanji.
Learn radicals as building blocks. Learn the common components, such as 亻 (person), 木 (tree), 口 (mouth) and 氵 (water), and use them to build mnemonics. 休 (rest) is a person leaning on a tree, which is far easier than memorizing strokes.
Follow stroke order every time. Write top to bottom and left to right, with horizontal strokes before crossing vertical ones in most cases. Correct order makes your handwriting readable and helps with handwriting input on phones.
Learn kanji through vocabulary. Study each new kanji inside two or three common words, such as 学 in 学生 (gakusei) and 学校 (gakkō). This teaches readings naturally and prevents knowing a meaning but not how to say the word.
Use spaced repetition daily. Review a few new kanji a day plus scheduled reviews, rather than cramming lists. Learnr lessons build this review rhythm into short daily sessions, with streaks to keep you consistent.
Read real Japanese with furigana. Graded readers, children's books and manga with furigana show kanji in context. As your count grows, try news for learners and signs, noting how okurigana like 食べる change endings while the kanji stays.

What you'll learn

Recognize common radicals and use them to remember and look up kanji
Write kanji with correct stroke order and proportions
Tell on and kun readings apart and predict them in compounds
Read common vocabulary that mixes kanji with okurigana
Read short everyday texts such as signs, menus and headlines

What's inside your Japanese Kanji course

A sample path Learnr builds for Japanese Kanji. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. Radicals and how kanji are built
2. Stroke order rules and writing practice
3. On and kun readings
4. Compounds, okurigana and furigana
5. Kanji by frequency and grade level
6. Reading real texts with kanji

How long does it take to learn Japanese Kanji?

Learning a few new kanji a day plus review, most learners can recognize several hundred in 4 to 6 months. Covering the full jōyō list usually takes 2 to 4 years of steady study. Reading fluently also needs grammar and vocabulary alongside the characters.

What you need before you start

Comfortable reading of hiragana and katakana, and ideally some basic Japanese vocabulary and grammar. Chinese learners will already know many character meanings.

Common mistakes to avoid

Memorizing kanji meanings without any vocabulary, then being unable to read words aloud; learn each character inside common words.
Trying to memorize every reading of a character at once; learn the readings that appear in the words you study, and add others later.
Ignoring stroke order and radicals, which makes similar characters like 待 and 持 blur together; learn the components that separate them.

How Learnr builds your course

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Japanese Kanji questions, answered

How many kanji do I need to know?

The jōyō list has 2,136 characters for general use, and newspapers mostly stay within it. Knowing a few hundred common kanji already lets you read many signs, menus and simple texts.

Should I learn to write kanji or just read them?

Reading matters most for daily life, and typing handles most writing. Writing a character by hand, though, helps you remember it and distinguish look-alikes, so many learners do some writing practice.

Are Japanese kanji the same as Chinese characters?

They share origins, and many meanings overlap, but Japanese uses its own readings and some simplified forms differ from mainland Chinese simplified characters. Chinese speakers have a big advantage with meanings.