So far, you have learned two Japanese writing systems: ひらがな and かたかな. Together, these form the phonetic system called かな, in which each character represents a sound. Japanese also uses a third writing system called
漢字 or kanji. Unlike かな, kanji are non-phonetic: each character represents meaning as well as sound. Kanji were introduced from China around the 4th century. Over time, simplified forms of kanji developed into ひらがな and かたかな.
Table 1. Kanji-Kana Comparison
Kanji
加
奈
Original kanji
Katakana
カ
ナ
Katakana developed from parts of kanji and
tends to use straight lines and sharp angles.
Hiragana
か
な
Hiragana evolved from more cursive, simplified
forms of kanji and has rounder, softer lines.
2. How They Work Together
In everyday Japanese writing, all three scripts are used together. 漢字（かんじ） are mainly used for content words:
● Nouns: 本 (book), 車 (car)
● Verbs: 来ます (come)
● Adjectives: 白い (white), 有名な (famous)
ひらがな are used for some content words and grammatical elements:
In addition to these three scripts, written Japanese also frequently uses Roman letters and Arabic numerals. As a result, even a short headline may contain a mixture of five different writing systems.
Figure 1. Kanji-Kana Comparison
3. How Many Kanji Are There?
Although tens of thousands of kanji exist, only about 3,000 are used in modern Japanese. Among these:
● 2,136 kanji are designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education as
常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ), “kanji for general use” (2010).
● Within that group, 1,026 are classified as 教育漢字 (きょういくかんじ), “kanji for educational use.”
By the end of ninth grade, Japanese students are expected to:
● read and write all 教育漢字
● read all 常用漢字.
Most books, newspapers, and journals restrict themselves to 常用漢字 for everyday communication. When kanji outside the 常用漢字 list appear in print, pronunciation guides are often added above or beside the characters. These are called よみがな (also known as ruby text).
漢字
よみがな is especially common for rare personal names, literary works, academic or historical writings and technical terminology.
4. How Kanji Represent Meaning
Unlike かな, where each character represents a sound, kanji represent meaning. For example: the concept water—written in English as “water” or symbolically as “H₂O”—is expressed in Japanese with the kanji 水, pronounced みず. The character 水 itself carries the meaning “water.” Because kanji encode meaning directly, they are often described as logographic (sometimes called ideographic). In English, letters represent sounds that combine to form meaning. In kanji, the character represents meaning first, and its pronunciation is associated with that meaning.
5. Kun Readings and On Readings
Kanji typically have two types of readings:
1. くんよみ (kun readings): Native Japanese readings
2. おんよみ (on readings): Readings based on historical Chinese pronunciations adapted into Japanese
Most commonly used kanji have at least one of each type, and many have multiple readings. Some kanji, however, have only おん readings. Because of this, the same kanji may be pronounced differently depending on context. Examples:
● 本
● ほん in 日本 (“Japan”)
● もと in 山本 (Yamamoto)
● 人
● じん in 日本人 (“Japanese people”)
● ひと in 日本の人 (“people in Japan”)
As a result, 日本 is read にほん, and 山本 is read やまもと. 日本人 is read にほんじん, and 日本の人 is read にほんのひと.
6. Same Sound, Different Kanji
It is also common for different, unrelated kanji to share the same pronunciation. However, they are not interchangeable, because each kanji represents a different meaning. For example:
買う （かう） means to buy. 書く （かく） means to write. Even if pronunciations may sound similar, the kanji—and therefore the meanings—are completely different. For this reason, it is important to learn not only how a word is pronounced, but also which kanji corresponds to that word.
7. Types of Kanji Characters
Kanji characters can be categorized into
one of the following four types.
pictographs, or simplified pictures of physical objects
= mountain
= eye
symbol characters, which represent abstract ideas
= above
= below
ideographs, or meaningful combinations of two or more pictographs
or symbols
= tree
= woods/grove
= forest
phonetic-ideographic characters, or those made up of a semantic
(meaning) element and phonetic (sounding) element
モン, gate +
mouth
モン, to ask
grass +
カ, transform
カ, flower
8: Stroke Order and Direction
When learning kanji, it is essential to write each character using the correct stroke order. Stroke order is not arbitrary; it follows established conventions that help maintain proper balance, proportion, and structure.
In general, kanji follow several basic principles of stroke order:
Top to bottom
Left to right
Horizontal strokes before vertical strokes
Outside before inside
Close frames last
These principles are helpful, but they are not absolute. Some kanji follow stroke-order conventions that may appear to “break” a general guideline (e.g., See the kanji for 田 below). Even if a character looks correct at first glance, writing it in the wrong order can lead to imbalance and poor formation. Developing good stroke-order habits from the beginning will make writing smoother and more accurate as you learn more complex kanji.
Horizontal strokes go from left to right, top to bottom.
Vertical strokes go from top to bottom, left to right.
A box is completed in the following order. You close the box last.
There are three distinct types of stroke endings used in writing kanji as shown below.
stop
release
hook
9: Which Kanji Fonts to Use?
The same kanji character may appear in different shapes depending on the font. When learning kanji for the first time, you should always learn to write them in the textbook-style font (shown at the top left below). This style most closely reflects standard stroke order and structure and serves as the model for proper handwriting.
Other font styles are important for recognition when reading printed materials, but they should not be used as models for writing kanji by hand.
Table 2. Example of Fonts
Textbook Font (Kyokashotai Font) (Learn to write in this style.)
Printed Font (Mincho Font) (For recognition only)
Brush Stroke Font (Gyosho Font) (For recognition only)
Your Default Computer Font (For recognition only)
田中日本山上下人
一二三四五六七八九十
学生先私外大小
If your computer does not have access to an appropriate Japanese font, it may substitute a non–Japanese-based font instead. When this happens, some kanji may appear in non-standard forms. These substituted shapes can differ noticeably from conventional Japanese kanji and, in some cases, may even look unfamiliar or incorrect to native Japanese readers. For this reason, it is important to ensure that your device is using a proper Japanese font when viewing or producing Japanese text.
= mountain
= eye 
= above
= below
= tree
= woods/grove
= forest 
mouth 
grass + 
