How many kanji are there in JLPT N5?

Commonly quoted estimates are around 100, and Kanji Guide's N5 group has 81. There is no official list, so counts depend on whose list you use.

Is there an official JLPT kanji list?

Not since the test was revised in 2010. The organisers stopped publishing level lists, and the lists you find online are compiled from earlier lists and past tests.

How many kanji do I need to pass N3?

Commonly quoted estimates are around 650 kanji in total up to N3. Treat that as a rough target, and check the question types in a practice test as well.

How Many Kanji Are in Each JLPT Level, N5 to N1?

Short answer: the JLPT has five levels, N5 (easiest) to N1 (hardest), and the commonly quoted kanji totals are about 100, 300, 650, 1,000 and 2,000. These are estimates. The organisers have not published an official kanji list since the test changed in 2010, so every list online is an approximation.

The five levels

The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test has run in its current five-level form since 2010. N5 is the entry level and N1 the highest. Before 2010 there were four levels, and the older lists were built around those.

After the change, the organisers stopped publishing the vocabulary and kanji lists for each level. This is why you will find different numbers on different sites, and why none of them can be called official.

The commonly quoted numbers

These are cumulative: each total includes the levels below it.

Level	Commonly quoted total
N5	about 100
N4	about 300
N3	about 650
N2	about 1,000
N1	about 2,000

They come from the older official lists and from community work compiling kanji seen on past tests. They are good enough to plan with, and no more than that.

What Kanji Guide uses

Kanji Guide has 2131 kanji and sorts each into one of the five levels. Per level, and then cumulative:

Level	In this level	Running total
N5	81	81
N4	169	250
N3	370	620
N2	380	1000
N1	1131	2131

These numbers will not match other sites, and that is expected. The N1 group is large because it holds everything not placed in a lower level. The list is a study order, not an exam syllabus. You can browse each level: N5, N4, N3, N2, N1.

If you are preparing for a specific test, use a recent practice test or textbook for the level as your main guide, and use a kanji list as a checklist.

How this compares with other counts you might hear

Jōyō kanji. The Japanese government’s list of everyday-use kanji has 2,136 characters, set in 2010. Kanji Guide’s 2131 is similar in size but not the same list, so do not treat them as interchangeable.

School kanji. Japanese elementary schools teach 1,026 kanji over six years. This is a different progression from the JLPT, which is built for adult learners.

Newspaper reading. People often say you need around two thousand kanji to read a newspaper. That is roughly the jōyō range, but it is a rule of thumb, not a measured threshold.

Why N1 is the big jump

Look at the table. N5 to N4 adds under 200. N2 to N1 adds more than 1,000 in the Kanji Guide grouping, and about 1,000 in the commonly quoted one. The later levels are mostly less common kanji, with busier shapes. Two things help:

Parts you already know make complex kanji cheaper. For example, 校 (school) is built from a tree and a part meaning “mingle” (交), and the story uses both.
Spaced review keeps the early kanji alive while you add new ones.

Here is 校 as an example of a kanji that reuses an earlier part:

Two kids mingle (交) beside a big tree (木), reading the notice pinned to it before the exam.

How to use the numbers

Pick a target level and look at the commonly quoted total.
Divide by your daily pace. See how many kanji per day for a table.
Add a margin. A plan on paper always takes longer in practice.
Do not wait for 100 percent. You do not need to know every kanji in a level to pass, and you can pass with gaps.

Reading someone else’s list

When you find a kanji list for a level, check four things before you trust the count.

Cumulative or per level? “300 for N4” usually means 300 in total, including N5. “170 for N4” means just the N4 step.
Where does it come from? Lists built from the old pre-2010 level lists differ from lists compiled from recent tests, and both differ from lists made by textbook publishers.
Does it count kanji or words? A level may expect many words that use a small set of kanji. Knowing a character is not the same as knowing every word built from it.
Is it a study order or a syllabus? Kanji Guide’s grouping is a study order. It tells you what to learn next, not what will appear on a given test.

None of this makes a list useless. It means the number is a planning aid, and a small difference between two lists is not worth worrying about.

A worked example

Say you want to reach N4 within a year. Using the Kanji Guide grouping, that is 250 kanji. At three a day, the new kanji take about 84 days. That leaves most of the year for reviews, for grammar and vocabulary, and for the weeks you miss. Even at a modest pace, the kanji are not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is usually keeping up the habit.

Now take N2, which in the same grouping is a running total of 1000. At five a day that is 200 days, so around seven months of steady work, before the review margin. It is a bigger commitment, and worth planning around a date.

Do you need kanji for N5 at all?

N5 does include kanji, but a small set covers a lot. The first group is numbers, days, people and basic objects, and it is the best place to start. See the full JLPT N5 kanji list.

Try it

Each of the levels above is in the free study app. Open it, choose a level, and learn a few kanji with picture stories and animated stroke order. An iPhone app is available as well.