A six-week plan for the JLPT N5 kanji

This plan takes you through the 106 kanji on the N5 list in six weeks, at about 20 to 30 minutes a day. It sets out how many kanji to add each day, what to learn about each one, when to review, and how to check that you really know them.

Before you start

Learn hiragana and katakana first. Every reading you will meet is written in kana, and romaji hides details such as long vowels that kana make plain.

The JLPT has not published an official kanji list since its 2010 revision, so N5 lists vary slightly between books. This site's list has 106; if yours differs by a few, the plan still works.

The shape of the plan

Add three or four new kanji a day, every day, for five weeks. That is about 21 a week. Use week six for review and testing only, with no new kanji.

Three a day sounds slow. It is deliberate: the real cost of a new kanji is the reviews it needs over the following weeks. At this pace your daily reviews settle at a size you can still finish on a busy day. If it feels easy after the first week, go up to five, not fifteen.

Each day, in this order:

1. Do your reviews (10 to 15 minutes).
2. Learn the day's new kanji (10 minutes).
3. Read or write two or three words that use them (5 minutes).

The weekly batches

The batches are grouped by theme so that each week gives you words to read together. If you follow a textbook, use its order instead.

After week two you can read dates and times such as 三月十日 (さんがつとおか, 10 March) and 午後三時 (ごごさんじ, 3 p.m.). After week five you can read station signs such as 入口 (いりぐち, entrance) and 出口 (でぐち, exit). Each kanji in the table links to its own page, and the whole list is on the N5 kanji index.

What to learn for each kanji

Learn four things, and stop there:

• A one-word meaning. 食 means "eat". Other shades of meaning can come later.
• One or two readings, each tied to a word. For 食, that is た-べる in 食べる (たべる, to eat) and ショク in 食事 (しょくじ, meal).
• One common word you will actually use. Take it from your textbook or vocabulary list.
• The shape, in the right stroke order. Write it three or four times while saying the word.

Skip the rest of the dictionary entry for now. A full entry for 生 lists many readings. At N5 you need セイ in 先生 (せんせい, teacher) and 学生 (がくせい, student), and perhaps う-まれる in 生まれる (うまれる, to be born). The others can wait until you meet them in words. The guide to on'yomi and kun'yomi explains which reading a word is likely to use.

Spaced review

Review each kanji on a widening schedule: the day after you learn it, then about three days later, then a week, two weeks and a month after that. Each time you get it right, the gap grows. Each time you miss it, it goes back to a short gap.

You can run this with paper flashcards in a row of boxes, moving a card one box along when you get it right and back to the first box when you miss it (the Leitner system), or with a spaced-repetition app. Either way, let the schedule decide what you review, not your mood. The kanji you feel sure of are the ones people stop reviewing too early.

Two rules keep the plan alive:

• Reviews come before new kanji. If you only have ten minutes, do the reviews and skip the new ones.
• After a few missed days, pause new kanji until the backlog is clear. A pile of overdue cards is discouraging, and it is where many study plans stall.

Writing or recognising

The JLPT is multiple choice, so it never asks you to write a kanji by hand. Its kanji questions ask you to read words in a sentence and to choose the right kanji for a word given in hiragana. Recognition is the target.

Writing still pays for itself at this level. Most N5 kanji have fewer than ten strokes, and writing one a few times makes you notice details you would skim past, such as the short stroke that turns 日 into 白. A sensible compromise: write each new kanji three or four times on the day you learn it, in the correct stroke order, then review by recognition. The stroke order guide covers the rules.

How to test yourself

• Test both directions. Kanji to reading is the easy direction. Also go from the word to the kanji: see たべる, then write or picture 食べる.
• Test words, not single kanji. 生 on its own tells you little. 先生 and 学生 test what the exam tests.
• Say the answer before you check. If you only nod when you see the answer, count it as wrong.
• Mix the order. Once a week, test everything you have learnt so far in random order. Kanji learnt in a themed batch are easier to recall next to each other, and a mixed test removes that prop.
• Keep a list of misses. Note any kanji you get wrong twice. They are usually look-alikes or kanji with two common readings, and each needs a targeted fix.

Week six

Add nothing new. Clear your reviews each day, then spend the rest of the time on a mixed test of all 106 kanji and on reading: short sentences from your textbook, graded readers, or JLPT N5 sample questions. Aim to read each kanji in at least one word without hesitating. If a handful still fail, put them back into daily review. That is normal.

Common mistakes

• Memorising reading lists. Readings without words don't stick, and they don't help in the test.
• Starting too fast. Twenty new kanji a day feels productive for about a week, until the reviews arrive.
• Rereading instead of recalling. Looking over a list feels like study because the kanji look familiar. Only recall shows whether you know them.
• Ignoring look-alikes. 人 and 入, 午 and 牛, 日 and 白: learn them as pairs. The look-alike kanji guide covers the common ones.
• Cramming at the weekend. Three kanji a day beats twenty-one on a Sunday, because the spacing is what makes them last.

When you finish, the same method carries on into the N4 kanji. If you would rather have the schedule kept for you, Kanji Fortress runs the same cycle of lessons and spaced review inside a game: see how Kanji Fortress teaches.