Kanji (漢字), together with hiragana and katakana, makes a significant contribution to form and shape what we call the Japanese language nowadays. So, have you know what kanji is? Kanji is basically Chinese characters which has been adapted for Japanese and they have different sounds as well. Their sounds are dependent on hiragana, so that’s what Kanji is mostly used in writing system.
You may have learnt Japanese for years, you may have remembered such a large number of kanji, but have you ever wonder how many Japanese kanji there are ?
As the comprehensive Dai Kan-Wa Jiten of Japan points out, there are about 50,000 Chinese characters in total. Neverthless, the majority of them are obscure. For example, many of them relate to specific places, or names of insects or plants.
In Japan, children aged from six to twelve have to learn about one thousand kanji and will have to study more and more kanji when they reach at middle and high school level.
According to the Japanese government’s list of recommended Chinese characters,the Jōyō Kanji (常用漢字), it requires pepole to remember 2136 characters. Besides, they are also supposed to remember another set known as the Jinmeiyō kanji (人名用). Jinmeiyō kanji (人名用) is a compilation of characters which are used to make names. So as to fully understand Japanese newspaperss, your are reccommended to master most of the character is the Jōyō Kanji (常用漢字) set.
Nowadays, as the society develops, modern written Japanese has also been expanded their range of used kanji as well. People begin to use more and more characters outside the Jōyō Kanji (常用漢字) set, which brings about a larger set of commonly used kanji that need learning. Specialized fields such as medicine use many non-Jōyō characters, and many place and family names also use characters outside the Jōyō set.
On the whole, approximately 50 000 is usually the number given for the number of Kanji characters. Among 50 000 kanji characters, 2000 is the number that is required for education and 5000 is reserved for well-read people like professors or linguists.
