The Japanese Writing System
Hiragana, katakana, kanji and romaji: what each one is for, how they mix in a sentence, and which to learn first.
- Scripts
- 3: hiragana, katakana, kanji
- Basic kana
- 46 of each
- Everyday kanji (Jōyō)
- 2,136
- Spaces between words
- None
Three scripts in one sentence
わたしはコーヒーを飲みます。(Watashi wa kōhī o nomimasu.) I drink coffee.
わたしは, を and みます are hiragana. コーヒー is katakana. 飲 is a kanji: it carries the meaning "drink," and the hiragana after it carries the grammar.
Hiragana
46 basic characters, each one a sound, most of them a consonant plus a vowel.
Hiragana writes particles, verb and adjective endings, and words that are not usually written in kanji. Books for young children are mostly hiragana.
Katakana
The same 46 sounds in angular shapes.
Katakana writes foreign words and names (コーヒー, アメリカ), many sound effects, and words a writer wants to stand out, a little like italics.
Kanji
Characters that came from Chinese. Each one carries a meaning and usually has more than one reading.
Japan's official list for everyday use, the Jōyō kanji, has 2,136 characters. Readings borrowed from Chinese are called on'yomi; native Japanese readings are kun'yomi.
Romaji
Romaji is not part of normal Japanese writing, but you see it on station signs, in addresses and in learner materials.
It helps in your first week. After that, read kana: romaji hides sounds such as long vowels and small っ.
Furigana and direction
Small hiragana printed above or beside kanji show their reading. They are called furigana and are common in children's and learner materials.
Japanese is written left to right in horizontal lines, or top to bottom in columns that run from right to left, as in many books and newspapers.
Related reading
Common questions
Is there a Japanese alphabet?+
Not in the English sense. The closest things are the two kana sets, where each character is a syllable rather than a single letter.
Which script should I learn first?+
Hiragana, then katakana, then kanji through the words you learn. Hiragana alone lets you read every sound in Japanese.
Do Japanese people use romaji?+
Mostly for typing. Many people type Japanese by entering romaji on a keyboard, which the computer converts to kana and kanji; phones also offer a kana keypad.
Why use three scripts?+
Each does a different job. Kanji show meaning and separate words, hiragana carry grammar, and katakana mark foreign words, so a sentence is easier to read without spaces.
