One of the biggest challenges when learning the Japanese language is the kanji (Chinese ideograms), and two questions often arise about this topic: How many kanji are there? And how many kanji should I learn in Japanese? In this article, we will discuss these two topics.
How many kanji are there?
It is impossible to know the exact number of existing kanji. In China, thousands of kanji were created in different regions throughout history, and Japan also created its own ideograms. Throughout Japan’s history, some kanji have fallen out of use or are rarely seen. For these reasons, it is impossible to determine an exact number of kanji in the Japanese language.
If we count all the kanji used in Japan’s history, before the existence of hiragana, the numbers can exceed 40,000. The Japanese Ministry of Education established a list called Jouyou kanji (常用漢字), with a total of 2,136 kanji. This list was created to catalog the most commonly used kanji in the Japanese language, in newspapers, TV, books, etc.
1,006 kanji are taught during primary education and 939 kanji are taught during secondary education. The numbers are not exact because over the years various kanji have fallen out of use and some have been added.
How many kanji should I learn?
You should learn as many as possible without worrying about quantities. More than 2,000 ideograms are used in the Japanese language, but you will not need all of them to achieve fluency. Learning the 1,006 kanji taught in primary education is already more than enough for you to understand 80% of the language.
If you want to learn kanji, we recommend not focusing on quantity; try to learn the ideograms in the way that Japanese students learn in schools. That is, if you want to learn the writing and reading of each kanji, try to learn between 100 to 200 ideograms per year.
To improve your learning, we recommend studying words and sentences instead of isolated ideograms. Try to learn the Japanese language and not just kanji. Avoid trying to memorize ideograms and do not waste time counting the number of kanji you have learned.
I personally think it is completely wrong to count the number of kanji we have learned, and I believe many would agree. Luiz Rafael made a video talking exactly about this subject, and you can watch it below:
Suki Desu has been working with Luiz Rafael to provide better education for you. If you are not yet familiar with Luiz Rafael’s work and his closed course, we recommend that you sign up on our website and follow our social media for more information. You can also read this article talking about the Online Japanese Program.
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