Memorize Japanese kanji!
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Asahi Kanji App
includes a JLPT study mode
N5 to N1

Asahi Kanji See description on the developer's site
Asahi Kanji Get it on the App Store
Asahi Kanji
Android App
Asahi Kanji See description on the developer's site
Get it on Google play
Get it on
Google play

(formerly known as the Android Market)



61 to 120 121 to 180 Sets overview
Please read the presentation below the applet

Unfortunately, browsers progressively stopped supporting Java and Java applets cannot be displayed any more.
Google Chrome stopped supporting Java with version 45 (September 2015)
Firefox stopped supporting Java with version 52 (March 2017)

If you have a smartphone or a tablet, please check out the Asahi Kanji app for iOS if you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, Asahi Kanji or Asahi Kanji app for Android Asahi Kanji En on Google play which offers more features and a better ergonomy than this web applet first released in 2001.

Java must be installed and activated

The Java applet should display here

Memorize Japanese kanji (Jōyō kanji order)

Introduction

    Reading actual texts is by far the best way to learn the written language, but flashcard programs have always been useful tools.
This program can help you get a sense of how much you already know, brush up on your Japanese, and prepare for a test.
We also believe that a certain amount of rote learning is a necessity when it comes to studying the kanji.

This program was thus conceived as a tool to help you memorize the kanji.
It is designed for students who have already started to learn Japanese. It is therefore assumed that you can read katakana and hiragana signs.

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Help

The flashcards

    You can drill yourself on sets of 60 cards, after customizing the appearance of the cards depending on the focus of your study.
You can toggle the visibility of items on the cards by clicking on the various panels. You can for example hide the meanings and examples, and flip through the set, making sure you know them all. Buttons let you move forward and backward through a "stack" of cards, but using the arrow keys on your keyboard will be less tedious.
The kanji follow the order of the list of 1945 kanji established in 1981 by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Jouyou Kanji).
(196 kanji have been officially added in 2010 but for the time being only the iPhone application uses the updated list. An update to this web site is also planned).


    Jump Box


A text box lets you jump to any card by number within the present set. Type a number in the text box and press the return key on your keyboard, or click on the button "Go to" to jump to any card in the set. To move to another set, click into the blue table at the top of the page. It will load a new set of 60 kanji (20 k) but will not download the applet again. It should therefore be very quick.

    Readings

As is customary, the On reading (the Chinese reading later referred to as on-yomi) is given in katakana and the Kun reading (the Japanese reading later referred to as kun-yomi) in hiragana. If a kanji is a verb stem, the inflectional endings (usually written in hiragana after the kanji) are shown in parenthesis. A kanji may have many meanings or interpretations. Only the most common meanings are shown. One to three examples are given for each kanji. These examples can be either common compounds or common expressions. We limited ourselves to frequent compounds or uses of the kanji, which explains the blanks.

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On-yomi, kun-yomi and meaning drills:

Click on the tabs marked On-yomi, Kun-yomi and Meaning in order to choose the type of drill.
You will be presented with a set of 5 kanji. Click the kanji whose on-yomi, kun-yomi or meaning matches the one displayed underneath.
You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move to the next card.
After clicking on a kanji, whether your choice is right or wrong, you will have the possibility to have a look at the corresponding card by pressing the space bar. Press again the spacebar to return to your test. (toggle) .
This is not a grading test and "cheating" by looking at the card is a good way to learn.


The "rules of the game"
The Japanese writing system is complex. As you know, Kanji have one or several on-yomi (or sometimes none), one or several kun-yomi (or none), and many share the same On or Kun readings.
Since we keep a score, we had to define some rules.

  • Naturally, on the test cards, kanji are displayed in random order.
  • When you give a good answer, the kanji is marked as "known" (although it might be a little hasty) and is not tested again during the session. However, it can reappear later as a distracter (i.e. a "wrong" kanji). The practice will end after you have given 60 or fewer good answers (some kanji do not have common On or Kun readings).
  • The on-yomi and kun-yomi tests only display the 2 most common readings.
  • Kanji that have no on-yomi or kun-yomi are not tested, but they might be displayed as distracters.
  • The kanji tested and the distracters do not share the same readings.
  • The score is the number of good answers divided by the number of tries.
  • If you click on the wrong kanji, your score will be decreased.
  • If you go on looking for the right kanji after giving a wrong answer, your score will remain unchanged.  But we advise you to go to the next card since the kanji you just missed will be displayed once more, in another random position.
    After missing a few times, the kanji that keeps reappearing will become obvious.
    This program was designed as a game and not as a grading test, and we hope this behavior will help you learn.
    The score is only a means for you to keep track of your progress from one time to another and to encourage you.

Report:

The report will display the date, the kanji range tested and your scores.
For security reasons, a Java applet is not allowed to read or write a file on your hard disk. Therefore, you will have to select the text with the mouse, copy it by using the keyboard shortcuts (the save command of your browser has no effect on a Java applet), and paste it in a text editor.
Its purpose is to help you keep track of your progress.

Encore!

When you go through the tests, the program memorizes the wrong choices and the kanji you should have chosen. You will find here the cards of the kanji you should concentrate on. The behavior of the cards is the same as in the Review stack : you will be able to hide or display the meanings and examples by clicking on the panels (toggle).


The search for examples was greatly facilitated by the existence of electronic dictionary files such as the famous Edict, a project started by Jim Breen.

Project design and development:     Roger Meyer
Proofreading of the Japanese data:  Akemi Sano, Keiko Higuchi

Your comments will be appreciated: orient0920@hotmail.com

An on-line Java flashcard program for studying and testing on kanji, including reading (on-yomi, kun-yomi) and meaning tests. Home: http://www.japanese-kanji.com
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Last update: April, 2017

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