Jōyō kanji: The 2136 most used kanji

Probably the thing we hear the most that is difficult in the Japanese language, without a doubt, is the kanji.With thousands of ideograms to learn, it's normal to be paralyzed and not know where to start.

It was with this in mind that the Japanese Ministry of Education created a list of the main kanji used in everyday life. Since 1941, the list has been updated and new kanji have been removed and added.

Currently the list is called Joyo kanji (常用漢字), with that name since 1981, and has a total of 2136 kanji most used by the Japanese. Getting close, more or less to half of this amount, it is already possible to read newspapers, magazines and everyday things.

Download complete table with the 2136 Jōyō Kanji

Nothing better than knowing all these 2136 ideograms to focus on what is really necessary and useful to be able to get by when visiting Japan or needing to read something in Japanese somewhere.

The website coscom makes available for free download in pdf the 2136 Jōyō Kanji, download now or read in your favorite browser.

This same list has already been published here on the site with the kanji in the order Japanese people learn in school in 12 years of study, which can be useful for anyone studying the Japanese language.

Another thing that helps a lot this list is for those who intend or are already studying for the Japanese language proficiency exam the JLPT- Japanese Language Proficiency Test 日本語能力試験 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) which is held here in Brazil usually in December.

How to study Kanji?

As I am no expert in language learning, I have as my first thought that to learn any kanji you need to memorize it. Is this an effective way?

The big problem is that depending on the word its pronunciation is different with the same kanji. How am I going to learn this kanji in isolation if it changes in a certain word?

The furigana can help, but when it is not available where I want to read what do I do? There are even apps that can help at this time, but it's much better for me to learn than to depend on apps or even a dictionary, do you agree?

In the video below Sensei Luiz Rafael explains better in 3 tips to learn kanji:

Don't forget that long before you start studying kanji you need to learn Hiragana and Katakana.

Image credits: JermJus

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