JLPT N5 Kanji List: All 103 Kanji with Meanings and Readings

Here is the honest answer first: there is no official JLPT N5 kanji list. The organizers stopped publishing kanji, vocabulary and grammar lists when the test was revised in 2010. Every JLPT N5 kanji list you find online is a reconstruction, which is why some say 80 kanji and others say 103. Below you’ll find all 103 kanji from the longer, widely used list, grouped by theme, with meanings, readings and an example word for each. The 23 that shorter lists leave out are marked, so you can choose your own target.

We wrote this for students aged about 10 to 16 sitting N5 on Sunday, December 6, 2026, and for the parents helping them revise. As Japanese teachers, we checked every reading and example word.

Is there an official JLPT N5 kanji list?

No. Before 2010, the test had four levels, and the organizers (the Japan Foundation and the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services) published a book called the Test Content Specifications, with lists of vocabulary, kanji and grammar for each level. When the test moved to five levels, N1 to N5, they dropped those lists. Their official guidebook says it directly: the Test Content Specifications, with their lists of vocabulary, kanji and grammar, are not going to be published for the new test. The reason given is that the goal is to use Japanese to communicate, not to memorize lists.

What the JLPT does publish is a short description of each level. For N5, it says a test taker can read and understand typical expressions and sentences written in hiragana, katakana and basic kanji. It does not say how many.

So where do the lists come from? The same guidebook describes N5 as approximately the same level as the old Level 4. JLPT materials comparing the old and new tests describe old Level 4 as about 100 kanji and about 800 words, after around 150 hours of study. Study sites and textbook writers built their N5 lists from that old level and from past papers. That is why almost every list lands somewhere near 100, but none of them is official.

How many kanji are on N5: 79, 80 or 103?

We compared the lists that students and teachers use most. They disagree on the total, but they agree more than the numbers suggest: the shorter lists are subsets of the longer one.

List	Number of N5 kanji	How it relates to the others
Jisho.org (JLPT tags, from Jonathan Waller’s JLPT Resources)	79	The JLPT Sensei list minus 分
JLPT Sensei	80	Every one of these is also in the 103 list
Nihongo Master	103	The 80 plus 23 more: 会 社 新 立 手 目 言 多 安 道 口 少 空 足 店 古 買 週 花 駅 飲 魚 耳
Free Nihon Ichiban workbook, The First 103 Kanji	103	Also a 103-kanji set, printed one kanji per page
Old Level 4 (pre-2010 official description)	About 100	A guideline, not a list you can download today

Which number should a student aim for? Our advice is learn all 103. The extra 23 are hardly exotic. 会社 (company), 駅 (station), 店 (shop), 新しい (new) and 買います (to buy) turn up in beginner textbooks and everyday reading all the time, and the body kanji 目, 耳, 口, 手 and 足 are among the simplest shapes there are. Because nobody knows exactly which kanji the test writers will use, learning the bigger set is the safer bet. If time is very short, start with the 80 and add the starred ones in the last week.

How kanji appear on the N5 test

This is the part many students don’t expect: you never write a kanji by hand on the JLPT. The test uses a multiple-choice answer sheet, and it has no writing or speaking section. Kanji are tested through reading and recognition. At N5, two question types in the vocabulary section focus on them:

• Kanji reading: a word is written in kanji, and you choose its reading in hiragana. For example, you see 雨 and choose あめ.
• Orthography: a word is written in hiragana, and you choose the correct kanji or katakana. For example, you see やすみ and choose 休み, not 体み.

That second type is why look-alike kanji matter so much at N5, and why we cover them below. Here is the whole test for 2026:

Test section	Time	Scoring section	Score range	Sectional pass mark
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary)	20 min	Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar) and Reading	0–120	38
Language Knowledge (Grammar) and Reading	40 min
Listening	30 min	Listening	0–60	19
Total			0–180	Overall pass mark: 80

You need both: at least 80 out of 180 overall, and at least the sectional pass mark in each scoring section. A student who scores very well on kanji and vocabulary but falls below 19 in listening still fails, so don’t let kanji take all of your revision time.

Dates for 2026. The JLPT is held twice a year, on Sunday, July 5, 2026 and Sunday, December 6, 2026. Outside Japan, some cities hold it only in July or only in December. You apply through the local host institution in your country, not through the JLPT itself, and application periods vary by city. In many places the December registration window opened in August, so if you haven’t registered yet, check your host institution’s page today.

The complete JLPT N5 kanji list: all 103 kanji by theme

Each kanji has two kinds of reading. The on’yomi is the reading that came from Chinese, and dictionaries write it in katakana. The kun’yomi is the native Japanese reading, written in hiragana, with the part that changes in brackets: た(べる) means the kanji is read た and followed by べる. We list the main readings you’ll meet at N5, not every reading in the dictionary. Kanji marked * are the 23 that the shorter 80-kanji lists leave out.

Kanji	Meaning	On’yomi	Kun’yomi	Example word
Numbers and money (14)
一	one	イチ, イツ	ひと(つ)	一つ (ひとつ) one thing
二	two	ニ	ふた(つ)	二人 (ふたり) two people
三	three	サン	み, みっ(つ)	三月 (さんがつ) March
四	four	シ	よ, よん, よっ(つ)	四時 (よじ) four o’clock
五	five	ゴ	いつ(つ)	五分 (ごふん) five minutes
六	six	ロク	む, むっ(つ)	六月 (ろくがつ) June
七	seven	シチ	なな, なな(つ)	七時 (しちじ) seven o’clock
八	eight	ハチ	や, やっ(つ)	八月 (はちがつ) August
九	nine	キュウ, ク	ここの(つ)	九時 (くじ) nine o’clock
十	ten	ジュウ	とお	十日 (とおか) the 10th of the month
百	hundred	ヒャク	—	三百 (さんびゃく) three hundred
千	thousand	セン	ち	三千 (さんぜん) three thousand
万	ten thousand	マン, バン	—	一万円 (いちまんえん) 10,000 yen
円	yen; circle	エン	まる(い)	百円 (ひゃくえん) 100 yen
Days, dates and time (18)
日	day; sun	ニチ, ジツ	ひ, か	日曜日 (にちようび) Sunday
月	month; moon	ゲツ, ガツ	つき	月曜日 (げつようび) Monday
火	fire	カ	ひ	火曜日 (かようび) Tuesday
水	water	スイ	みず	水曜日 (すいようび) Wednesday
木	tree, wood	モク, ボク	き	木曜日 (もくようび) Thursday
金	gold; money	キン, コン	かね	金曜日 (きんようび) Friday
土	earth, soil	ド, ト	つち	土曜日 (どようび) Saturday
年	year	ネン	とし	来年 (らいねん) next year
時	time; o’clock	ジ	とき	時間 (じかん) time, hours
分	minute; part; understand	フン, ブン	わ(かる)	分かります (わかります) to understand
半	half	ハン	なか(ば)	三時半 (さんじはん) half past three
今	now	コン	いま	今日 (きょう) today
午	noon	ゴ	—	午後 (ごご) afternoon, p.m.
前	before; in front	ゼン	まえ	午前 (ごぜん) morning, a.m.
後	after; behind	ゴ, コウ	あと, うし(ろ)	後で (あとで) later
毎	every	マイ	—	毎日 (まいにち) every day
週*	week	シュウ	—	毎週 (まいしゅう) every week
間	interval; between	カン, ケン	あいだ, ま	一時間 (いちじかん) one hour
People and family (10)
人	person	ジン, ニン	ひと	日本人 (にほんじん) Japanese person
子	child	シ, ス	こ	子ども (こども) child
女	woman, girl	ジョ, ニョ	おんな	女の子 (おんなのこ) girl
男	man, boy	ダン, ナン	おとこ	男の子 (おとこのこ) boy
父	father	フ	ちち	お父さん (おとうさん) father
母	mother	ボ	はは	お母さん (おかあさん) mother
友	friend	ユウ	とも	友だち (ともだち) friend
先	ahead; previous	セン	さき	先生 (せんせい) teacher
生	life; be born	セイ, ショウ	い(きる), う(まれる)	学生 (がくせい) student
名	name	メイ, ミョウ	な	名前 (なまえ) name
The body (5)
目*	eye	モク	め	目 (め) eye
耳*	ear	ジ	みみ	耳 (みみ) ear
口*	mouth	コウ, ク	くち	入り口 (いりぐち) entrance
手*	hand	シュ	て	上手 (じょうず) good at
足*	foot, leg; be enough	ソク	あし, た(りる)	足 (あし) foot, leg
Nature and weather (7)
山	mountain	サン	やま	富士山 (ふじさん) Mount Fuji
川	river	セン	かわ	川 (かわ) river
天	sky; heaven	テン	あめ, あま	天気 (てんき) weather
気	spirit; air; mood	キ, ケ	—	元気 (げんき) well, full of energy
雨	rain	ウ	あめ	雨 (あめ) rain
空*	sky; empty	クウ	そら, あ(く)	空 (そら) sky
花*	flower	カ	はな	花見 (はなみ) cherry-blossom viewing
Places and directions (16)
上	up, above	ジョウ	うえ, あ(がる)	上 (うえ) on top, above
下	down, below	カ, ゲ	した, さ(がる)	下 (した) under, below
中	middle, inside	チュウ	なか	中学生 (ちゅうがくせい) junior high student
外	outside	ガイ, ゲ	そと, ほか	外国 (がいこく) foreign country
右	right	ウ, ユウ	みぎ	右 (みぎ) right
左	left	サ	ひだり	左 (ひだり) left
東	east	トウ	ひがし	東京 (とうきょう) Tokyo
西	west	セイ, サイ	にし	西口 (にしぐち) west exit
南	south	ナン	みなみ	南 (みなみ) south
北	north	ホク	きた	北海道 (ほっかいどう) Hokkaido
国	country	コク	くに	中国 (ちゅうごく) China
学	study, learning	ガク	まな(ぶ)	大学 (だいがく) university
校	school	コウ	—	学校 (がっこう) school
店*	shop	テン	みせ	店 (みせ) shop
駅*	station	エキ	—	駅 (えき) station
道*	road, way	ドウ	みち	道 (みち) road, way
Actions (16)
行	go	コウ, ギョウ	い(く)	行きます (いきます) to go
来	come	ライ	く(る)	来ます (きます) to come
出	go out; exit	シュツ	で(る), だ(す)	出口 (でぐち) exit
入	enter	ニュウ	はい(る), い(れる)	入ります (はいります) to go in
見	see, watch	ケン	み(る)	見ます (みます) to see, to watch
言*	say	ゲン, ゴン	い(う)	言います (いいます) to say
話	talk; story	ワ	はな(す), はなし	電話 (でんわ) telephone
聞	hear; ask	ブン, モン	き(く)	聞きます (ききます) to listen, to ask
読	read	ドク	よ(む)	読みます (よみます) to read
書	write	ショ	か(く)	書きます (かきます) to write
食	eat; food	ショク	た(べる)	食べます (たべます) to eat
飲*	drink	イン	の(む)	飲み物 (のみもの) a drink
買*	buy	バイ	か(う)	買い物 (かいもの) shopping
会*	meet	カイ	あ(う)	会います (あいます) to meet
休	rest	キュウ	やす(む)	休み (やすみ) day off, holiday
立*	stand	リツ	た(つ)	立ちます (たちます) to stand up
Describing words (10)
大	big	ダイ, タイ	おお(きい)	大きい (おおきい) big
小	small	ショウ	ちい(さい), こ	小さい (ちいさい) small
長	long	チョウ	なが(い)	長い (ながい) long
高	tall; expensive	コウ	たか(い)	高い (たかい) tall, expensive
安*	cheap; calm	アン	やす(い)	安い (やすい) cheap
新*	new	シン	あたら(しい)	新しい (あたらしい) new
古*	old	コ	ふる(い)	古い (ふるい) old (things, not people)
多*	many	タ	おお(い)	多い (おおい) many, a lot
少*	few, a little	ショウ	すく(ない), すこ(し)	少し (すこし) a little
白	white	ハク	しろ, しろ(い)	白い (しろい) white
Everyday things (7)
本	book; origin	ホン	もと	日本 (にほん) Japan
何	what	カ	なに, なん	何時 (なんじ) what time
電	electricity	デン	—	電車 (でんしゃ) train
車	car, vehicle	シャ	くるま	車 (くるま) car
語	language, word	ゴ	かた(る)	日本語 (にほんご) Japanese language
魚*	fish	ギョ	さかな, うお	魚 (さかな) fish
社*	company; shrine	シャ	やしろ	会社 (かいしゃ) company

Three notes from the table. 今日 (きょう), 一人 (ひとり) and お父さん (おとうさん) use special readings that you learn as whole words, not character by character. 何 is read なん before sounds like じ and ようび (何時, 何曜日) and usually なに elsewhere, as in 何を. And 生 has more readings than any other kanji on the list, so learn it inside 先生, 学生 and 生まれました rather than as a list of sounds.

From a Japanese teacher: When a child in my class looks worried at 103 kanji, I tell them this: you already know which kanji a Japanese seven-year-old learns, because it’s mostly this list. We checked all 103 against the official grade-by-grade kanji table used in Japanese primary schools. 57 of them are taught in first grade and 43 in second grade. Only 3, 安, 飲 and 駅, wait until third grade. So when you finish N5 kanji, you know a big share of the 240 kanji a Japanese child learns in the first two years of school. Tell your child that: these are the same kanji Japanese first and second graders practice in their notebooks every day. The differences are interesting too. Japanese first graders learn 虫 (insect), 竹 (bamboo) and 森 (forest), which aren’t on the N5 list, while N5 students learn 会社 and 駅 earlier, because adults and travelers need them.

JLPT N5 kanji with stroke order: the rules that cover almost everything

The test doesn’t check stroke order, but students who learn it remember kanji better, write them in a better shape, and find it much easier to look up a kanji they can’t read. In Japan, the stroke order taught in school goes back to a 1958 Ministry of Education guide, 筆順指導の手びき (a guide to teaching stroke order), which set out one order for each of the 881 kanji taught in schools at the time. The guide itself said its order was chosen for teaching and that other orders aren’t necessarily wrong, but textbooks still follow it. A handful of rules covers nearly every N5 kanji:

• Top to bottom: 三, 言, 書.
• Left to right: 川, 休, 話.
• Horizontal before vertical when they cross: 十, 千, 木.
• Outside before inside, then close the box: 日, 国, 間. Write the left side and the top-right corner, then what’s inside, then the bottom line last.
• Centre before the sides: 小 and 水 start with the middle stroke.
• A stroke that cuts through everything comes last: the long vertical in 中 and 半.
• The walking stroke ⻌ comes last: in 道, write 首 first and the ⻌ underneath at the end.

Two famous exceptions are on the N5 list itself. 右 (right) starts with the slanting stroke ノ and then the horizontal, but 左 (left) starts with the horizontal. 九 also starts with ノ. This pair is a classic teaching point in Japanese first-grade classrooms.

To check any kanji, use a free tool that animates or numbers each stroke. Jisho.org shows stroke-order diagrams for every kanji, drawn from the KanjiVG project, an open set of stroke-order graphics by Ulrich Apel and contributors, released under a Creative Commons license. The Nihon Ichiban workbook in the next section also prints the stroke order for each of its 103 kanji, with a practice grid.

Free N5 kanji PDFs, Anki decks and spreadsheets compared

Most people searching for a JLPT N5 kanji list PDF, Anki deck or Excel file want the same thing: a list they can print or study from. Here is what’s actually worth using, with the weak points stated plainly.

Resource	Format	Good for	Watch out for
JLPT Official Practice Workbooks (jlpt.jp)	PDF and MP3, free download	Real N5-style questions from the test organizers, including kanji reading and orthography, with answers and listening scripts. Two sets (2012 and 2018).	No kanji list. Use it to test yourself, not to learn.
The First 103 Kanji (Nihon Ichiban)	Printable PDF	One page per kanji with meaning, readings, vocabulary, stroke order and a writing grid. The publisher says it can be shared freely.	It’s a large file, and the introduction’s background notes on kanji are dated. The kanji pages are what you want.
Jisho.org	Website	Stroke-order diagrams, readings and example words for any kanji; search #jlpt-n5 to see its N5 set.	Its N5 tag covers 79 kanji, so it skips the 24 we include beyond that.
JLPT Sensei	Website	The 80-kanji list with a page for each kanji.	The shorter list, and the site has ads.
Anki	Flashcard app	Spaced repetition. Free on desktop and Android. Shared N5 decks are easy to find, or build your own.	Shared decks vary in quality and in which kanji they include. Check any deck against the list on this page before trusting it.
This page	HTML table	All 103 kanji, grouped by theme, with readings and example words checked by teachers.	No official spreadsheet exists. To make your own, select our table, paste it into Excel or Google Sheets, then import it into Anki.

For younger learners, paper still works best for writing practice. Our free Japanese worksheets for kids roundup covers printable options. If your child prefers screens, our guide to Japanese learning apps for kids compares the main apps honestly.

A 4-week plan to learn all 103 before the December test

The plan counts back from test day, so it works whatever week you start. It assumes about 15 to 20 minutes a day, six days a week, and uses the theme groups from the table above. If you have longer than four weeks, stretch each week over two.

When	Groups from the table	New kanji	End-of-week check
4 weeks before	Numbers and money; Days, dates and time	32	Write today’s date, the time and a price in kanji
3 weeks before	People and family; The body; Nature and weather; Places and directions	38	Read five sentences about your family and your town
2 weeks before	Actions; Describing words; Everyday things	33	All 103 learned. Do the vocabulary section of an official practice workbook, untimed
Test week	Review: look-alikes and every kanji you missed	0	A full practice test, timed: 20 + 40 + 30 minutes

A daily routine that works for 10 to 16-year-olds:

• 5 minutes: review. Flashcards for everything so far, with the example word on the front, not the kanji on its own.
• 5 to 10 minutes: new kanji. Five or six a day. Say the example word out loud, write it three times, then cover it and write it once from memory.
• 5 minutes: use it. Read or write one short sentence with today’s kanji and one from last week. 毎日、駅まで歩きます is better practice than a page of 駅.

Parents, the most useful thing you can do is the 5-minute review: hold up the cards and ask for the reading. You don’t need to know any Japanese to check an answer against the back of a card.

Look-alike kanji that cost marks at N5

Orthography questions often put a correct kanji next to one that looks almost the same. These are the pairs we correct most often with beginners, all from the N5 list:

Pair	How to tell them apart
人 / 入	In 人 (person) the left stroke starts higher and the right one leans against it; in 入 (enter) it is the other way round, and the right stroke is the taller one. Think of 入り口, the entrance.
木 / 本 / 休	本 is a tree with a line marking its root. 休 (rest) is a person leaning on a tree.
日 / 目 / 白 / 百	Count the lines inside: 日 has one, 目 has two. 白 is 日 with a tick on top; 百 is 白 with a line over it.
大 / 天	Add a line on top of big (大) and it becomes sky (天), as in 天気.
間 / 聞	Both sit inside a gate (門). With 日 inside it means interval (時間); with an ear, 耳, it means listen (聞きます).
右 / 左	右 has 口 at the bottom (think of the hand you eat with, near your mouth); 左 has 工. Remember the stroke order difference too.
千 / 十	千 (thousand) is 十 with a short slanting stroke on top.

From a Japanese teacher: In Japanese schools we don’t teach kanji as lonely characters. We teach them inside words and stories. A student who copies 聞 twenty times often forgets it by Friday. A student who notices that it’s an ear at a gate, and then reads 聞きます in a sentence about music, keeps it. Look at how the N5 kanji build on each other: 休 is 人 and 木, 男 is 田 (a rice field) and 力 (strength), 話 and 語 both start with 言 (say). Once a student sees the pieces, a 14-stroke kanji becomes three shapes they already know.

After N5: using kanji with real people

N5 is a starting line. Students who stay with Japanese at school will meet longer, exam-specific lists later. Our articles on the HSC Japanese Continuers kanji list and the VCE Japanese kanji list show what Australian senior courses expect, and our guide to the AP Japanese exam covers the US route.

What makes kanji stick in the long run is reading them in messages from real people. At TOMODACHI JAPAN, children learn online in small groups with teachers from Japan and talk with children their own age in Japan. Reading a message from a friend that says 今日は学校が楽しかった does more for kanji than another flashcard session. To be honest about fit: we aren’t a JLPT cramming service. If the test is a few weeks away and you want one-to-one past-paper drilling, a dedicated JLPT tutor is the better choice. Details of our classes are in our school guide.

The bottom line

There is no official JLPT N5 kanji list, and there hasn’t been since 2010. The lists people use are reconstructions of the old Level 4, which was about 100 kanji. The 80-kanji lists are fully contained in the 103-kanji list, so learning all 103 covers every popular version. On the test you only need to read and recognize kanji, never write them by hand, but writing them while you study is still the best way to remember them. Learn them by theme, inside words, about 35 a week, and leave the final week for look-alikes and a timed practice test.

JLPT N5 kanji FAQ

How many kanji do you need for JLPT N5?

There is no official number. Popular lists have 79, 80 or 103 kanji, and the old Level 4, which N5 roughly replaced, was described as about 100 kanji. Learning the 103-kanji list covers all of the common versions.

Do you have to write kanji on the JLPT N5?

No. The JLPT uses a multiple-choice answer sheet and has no writing section. Kanji are tested by choosing the correct reading of a kanji word, or the correct kanji for a word written in hiragana.

When is the JLPT N5 in 2026?

The 2026 tests are on Sunday, July 5 and Sunday, December 6. Some cities outside Japan hold the test only once a year, and application periods vary by city, so check with your local host institution.

What score do you need to pass N5?

At least 80 out of 180 overall, plus at least 38 out of 120 in Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar) and Reading, and at least 19 out of 60 in Listening.

How long does it take to learn the N5 kanji?

With 15 to 20 minutes a day, most students can learn all 103 in about three weeks and use a fourth week for review. Younger children usually do better at a slower pace of three or four new kanji a day.

Are N5 kanji the same as the kanji Japanese children learn first?

Mostly. Of the 103, 57 are taught in first grade in Japanese primary schools and 43 in second grade. Only 安, 飲 and 駅 are third-grade kanji.

Sources

• JLPT official website, FAQ (why Test Content Specifications are no longer available): jlpt.jp
• JLPT, The New Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Guidebook (summary version), Q and A on Test Content Specifications and correspondence of N5 to old Level 4: jlpt.jp (PDF)
• JLPT, comparison of the old and new tests (old Level 4: about 100 kanji, 800 words, 150 hours): jlpt.jp (PDF, Japanese)
• JLPT, N1-N5 Summary of Linguistic Competence: jlpt.jp
• JLPT, Composition of Test Sections and Items, and N5 purposes of test items: jlpt.jp
• JLPT, Scoring Sections, Pass or Fail, Score Report: jlpt.jp
• JLPT, Test in Overseas (2026 test dates and how to apply): jlpt.jp
• JLPT, Official Practice Workbooks (free PDF and MP3): jlpt.jp
• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan), grade-by-grade kanji allocation table, elementary school Course of Study: mext.go.jp (Japanese)
• KanjiVG, stroke-order data: kanjivg.tagaini.net
• Jisho.org, About (stroke order from KanjiVG; JLPT levels from Jonathan Waller’s JLPT Resources): jisho.org
• JLPT Sensei, JLPT N5 kanji list: jlptsensei.com
• Nihongo Master, JLPT N5 kanji list: nihongomaster.com