
Research
The Jōyō Kanji List Explained, and How to Use It
2,136 characters designated for general use in Japan. What the list is for, what it is not, how it relates to school kanji and the JLPT, and how to use it well.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Posts tagged Goals from the Kanji Write Practice team.

2,136 characters designated for general use in Japan. What the list is for, what it is not, how it relates to school kanji and the JLPT, and how to use it well.

The official jōyō list has 2,136 characters. What that means for reading, why the JLPT needs no handwriting at all, and how small a writing set actually needs to be.

Two to four years for comfortable reading, months for a useful handwriting set, and consistency matters more than method. The arithmetic and the shape of the curve.