JLPT N5 Kanji List: The Characters You Need to Know

The JLPT N5 kanji set is roughly 100 characters — there is no official list, so decks vary by a few characters, but the core set below covers the ones that actually appear on the exam. Learn them inside words, not alone, and you need about four weeks at five new characters a day. This guide groups the core characters by theme with a common reading and example word each, then gives you the four-week plan that makes them stick.

What counts as "N5 kanji"

N5 certifies basic Japanese: hiragana, katakana, everyday kanji for numbers, time, people, places, and common verbs and adjectives. Because the JLPT stopped publishing official kanji lists in 2010, the "100" is a reconstruction from past papers — how many kanji each level needs explains the counts and the reasoning. What matters is not the exact number but learning the core set below so exam passages never surprise you.

Numbers and counting

Numbers, days of the month, and prices are a fixture of N5 listening and reading questions — drill them with daily listening practice.

Time and the calendar

People, school, and language

Body and directions

Nature and weather

Weather words are a favorite N5 listening topic — note that 天気 (てんき, weather) combines 天 and 気, and 気 appears in dozens of common compounds.

Common verbs

Common adjectives and everyday words

How to learn them

• Learn inside words, not alone. 生 looks like a dozen different words in isolation; 学生 (がくせい, student) has one reading and one meaning. Every card in your deck should be a word, not a character.
• Notice the parts. After about 200 characters, new kanji stop being pictures and become combinations you already know — 語 = 言 (speech) + 五 (five) + 口 (mouth). Component awareness is what makes the N4 and N3 kanji volumes tractable.
• Let spaced repetition schedule review. Five new characters a day in a sentence-based SRS deck beats fifty characters reviewed once. Our vocabulary SRS strategy has the full setup.
• Read them in context. Kanji learned in a deck but never met in a sentence stays fragile. Graded readers and slow N5 passages turn recognition into reflex.

A four-week plan

At five a day you cover the core set in about three weeks, then spend the fourth week on weak characters and readings. Finish with a timed JLPT mock to see which characters actually stuck — the mock exam strategy shows how to turn that result into your next four weeks.

FAQ

How many kanji are there for JLPT N5? About 100. There is no official list — the JLPT stopped publishing one in 2010 — so sources vary by a few characters, but the core set above is what appears on the exam.

Do I need to write N5 kanji by hand? No. The JLPT is entirely multiple choice; you recognize kanji and choose their readings, but never write them. Handwriting practice can still help memory, but recognition speed is what scores points.

What order should I learn N5 kanji? Learn them inside common words, grouped by theme — numbers and time first, then people, verbs, and adjectives. Frequency and theme beat the Japanese school-grade order.

Can I learn N5 kanji in one month? Yes, at five new characters a day with spaced-repetition review — about four weeks for the core set. The daily count matters less than never skipping review.

Keep studying

• How many kanji for each JLPT level
• JLPT N5 study plan — 3 months
• More kanji articles

Official sources checked

• JLPT reference materials and test overview — official test structure and level guidance.
• JLPT composition of test sections and items — official item categories and level coverage.

The JLPT publishes no official N5 kanji list. The characters and readings here are the standard community reconstruction and are study aids, not an official syllabus.