100 of the Most Common Kanji Characters

Kanji is one of three different writing systems in Japanese, the other being the two kana systems, hiragana and katakana. Adapted from Chinese characters over 1,000 years ago, kanji remains the most common form of Japanese written communication.

With multiple writing systems, two phonetic and one symbolic, the Japanese language may seem intimidating to new students, and memorizing the most common kanji symbols and other scripts does indeed take time and practice. But once you've mastered them, you'll discover a means of written communication unlike anything in the English language. Below you'll find 100 of the most common kanji characters—including the characters for power, rice, city, and more.

Kanji Symbols

Kanji is symbolic, or logographic. It is the most common means of written communication in the Japanese language, with more than 50,000 different symbols by some estimates. However, most Japanese can get by using about 2,000 different kanji in everyday communication. A single kanji character can have multiple meanings depending on how it is pronounced and the context in which it is used.

Hiragana and Katakana

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Japanese Writing for Beginners

By Namiko Abe

Hiragana and katakana are both phonetic (or syllabic) writing systems. There are 46 basic characters in each. Hiragana is used primarily to spell words that have Japanese roots or grammatical elements. Katakana is used to spell foreign and technical words ("computer," for example), or used for emphasis.

Romanji

Western characters and words, sometimes called romanji, are also common in modern Japanese. Typically, these are reserved for words derived from Western languages, especially English. The word "T-shirt" in Japanese, for example, consists of a T and several katakana characters. Japanese advertising and media frequently use English words for stylistic emphasis. 

For everyday purposes, most writing contains kanji characters because it's the most efficient, expressive means of communication. Complete sentences written only in hiragana and katakana would be extremely long and resemble a jumble of letters, not a full thought. But when used in conjunction with kanji, the Japanese language becomes full of nuance.

Kanji has its historical roots in Chinese writing. The word itself means "Chinese (or Han) characters." Early forms were first used in Japan as early as A.D. 800 and evolved slowly into the modern era, along with hiragana and katakana. Following Japan's defeat in World War II, the government adopted a series of rules designed to simplify the most common kanji characters to make them easier to learn.

Elementary school students have to learn about 1,000 characters. That number doubles by high school. Beginning in the late 1900s, Japanese education officials have added more and more kanji to the curriculum. Because the language has such deep historical roots, literally thousands more kanji have evolved over time and are still in use.

Common Kanji Characters

Here are 100 of the most frequently used kanji in Japanese newspapers. Newspapers give a great representation of the best and most useful kanji to learn because you are more likely to come across these characters in day-to-day use.