Introduction to Japanese Kanji

What are kanji?

漢字 (kanji) means “Chinese characters”. Kanji originated in Chinese writing and were adopted into Japanese over many centuries. Japan developed its own ways of using and pronouncing these characters, and some characters and meanings are used differently in Japanese and Chinese today.

Unlike an alphabet, where individual letters mainly represent sounds, a kanji often conveys an idea or part of a word. For example, 山 is associated with a mountain, 水 with water, and 日 with the sun or a day.

Kanji have changed in form over time. Modern Japanese uses a standard set of commonly used characters, including forms simplified in Japan from older character forms. You do not need to learn the history of every character to begin reading Japanese.

The three Japanese writing systems

Japanese uses kanji alongside two syllabic writing systems: hiragana and katakana. A normal sentence may combine all three. Each has a different role, and learning to recognise them together makes written Japanese much easier to understand.

Hiragana and katakana developed historically from forms of kanji. In modern Japanese, however, they are distinct writing systems with their own sounds and uses.

Why do kanji have different readings?

Many kanji have more than one reading. Two useful terms are on'yomi (音読み), readings connected historically with Chinese pronunciations, and kun'yomi (訓読み), readings associated with native Japanese words.

These labels are helpful, but they are not a rule that lets you predict every pronunciation. The reading often depends on the word and the characters around it, so learning kanji as part of vocabulary is important.

When you explore a character in the Kanji Browser or Finder, look at its readings and example words together rather than trying to memorise every reading in isolation.

How kanji work with hiragana in Japanese verbs

This is particularly useful when using the Japanese Verb Conjugator. A verb is often written with a kanji for its core meaning and hiragana for the ending. When the verb changes form, the kanji usually stays the same while the hiragana ending changes.

In these examples, the kanji 食 remains in place, while the hiragana following it changes to express different grammatical forms. This pattern is common, although the exact changes depend on the verb and its verb class.

Not every verb is written with kanji all the time, and some verbs have irregular forms. The conjugator can help you compare the forms side by side.

Strokes, radicals and character structure

Kanji are made up of strokes, written in conventional orders. Counting the strokes can help you find a character when you know how it looks but do not know its meaning or pronunciation.

Many characters also contain smaller components. A component called a radical is used to classify characters in dictionaries; other components can offer clues about meaning or pronunciation. These clues are useful, but they do not work perfectly for every character.

How to start learning kanji

You do not need to learn thousands of characters before you can start reading Japanese. Begin with common characters and words that are useful to you, and build familiarity gradually.

• Learn a kanji with one or two example words rather than memorising a list of readings.
• Notice how kanji combine with hiragana in verbs and adjectives.
• Practise recognising characters in context, then revisit them with quizzes.
• Use stroke count or components as search aids when you cannot identify a character.
• Revisit characters regularly; recognition and recall improve with practice.

Use the tools below to explore characters, look up meanings, and check what you remember.