Contents
A little background on Kanji・かんじ・漢字
Kanji facts
- Kanji was originated in ancient China.
- Kanji characters are hieroglyph, each character has a unique meaning by itself.
- Of the Four Great Ancient Civilizations, kanji is the only characters still used today.
- There are approximately 100,000 kanji which is the largest in any character system.
- Today, kanji is primarily used in Chinese and Japanese.
Though there are 100,000 unique kanji characters recorded, number of actively used in real life are much less.
For both Chinese and Japanese, if you know 3,000-4,000 commonly used kanji, you will be more than fine.
Kanken・かんけん・漢検・Japan Kanji Proficiency Test
Japan Association of Kanji Proficiency Test was founded in 1992. Association's primary purpose and philosophy is to promote importance and benefit of learning Kanji/Japanese to the people of all ages.
In 2013, Association was approved and registered as Public Interest Incorporated Foundation.
Nihon Kanji Nōryoku Kentei・にほんかんじのうりょくけんてい・日本漢字能力検定
The test is known as KANKEN.
This test is made for native/native level Japanese speakers. Application is open for everyone. The test is held 3 times a year nationwide at about 180 testing sites. (There are some international testing sites).
Level of testing
| LEVEL・Kyū・級 | Proficiency level | Number of Kanji covered |
| Level 10 - 十級・jyukkyū | 1st grade completed | 80 |
| Level 09・九級・kyūkyū | 2nd grade completed | 240 |
| Level 08・八級・hakkyū | 3rd grade completed | 440 |
| Level 07・七級・nanakyū | 4th grade completed | 642 |
| Level 06・六級・rokkyū | 5th grade completed | 835 |
| Level 05・五級・gokyū | 6th grade completed | 1026 |
| Level 04・四級・yonkyū | Jr High students | 1339 |
| Level 03・三級・sankyū | Jr High graduates | 1623 |
| Level Semi-02・準二級・jyunnikyū | High school students | 1951 |
| Level 02・二級・nikyū | High school grads - adults | 2136 |
| Level Semi-01・準一級・jyunikkyū | College - adults | 3000 |
| Level 01・一級・ikkyū・most difficult | College - adults | 6000 |
(Ref: Japan Kanji Proficiency Test Association)
Kanken - actual results and some statistics
As you can see form the table above, most high school grads (ideally) know around 2,000 kanji. This approximately equals the number of kanji included in "Jyōyō Kanji・じょうようかんじ・常用漢字".
"Jyōyō Kanji" is the national standard set by the government. It lists 2136 kanji characters that are considered necessary and practical in order to express and communicate efficiently in general social life.(as of 2010)
Levels beyond Jyōyō Kanji are considered highly advance level. In Kanken, semi-level 1 and level1 are for exceptional, kanji experts.
2019 test results show this :
- Passing rate for all levels combined was 57%, and passing rate for Level 1 was 8%.
- Total 1,831,851 people took the tests (all levels) and 1,043,553 passed (57%).
- Total 3,266 people took the Level 1 test and 262 passed (8%).
Kanken tests your proficiency in all areas of Kanji including: multiple ways of reading , writing, usage, meaning, structure, strokes, and stroke order.
Total possible points are 150 for level 8-10, and 200 for level 1-7. Passing scores are approximately 70%-80%. Time given is usually 1 hour.
Kanji - Subject for life long learning for all Japanese speakers
Official site of Japan Association of Kanji Proficiency Test shows you the detail of how, when, where about the tests, how to prepare for, in addition to fun quizzes and practices, news, reviews, and interviews. The site is all in Japanese, but it'll be fun to take a look.
If you are interested, search "kanji kentei" and you will find an official site listed in the results. (If you search by "kanken", you'll probably see only the nice Swedish backpacks.
)
Kanji is a life long learning subject for all Japanese speakers. In Survival Japanese, we recommend all learners to master Hiragana because it will make learning process easier and more effective in a long run.
And as you continue learning Japanese, you will see how important it is to learn Kanji. Being able to read Kanji is far more important than being able to actually write them. Nowadays, you can install "Japanese language pack" in your PC or smartphone, type in Rōma-ji alphabet and display Hiragana and Kanji.
That's one way to learn Hiragana and Kanji characters at the same time you learn new words. When you know how to read them, you can write them using your keyboard. Handwriting is not so much a necessity anymore.
Please let us know if you want to learn Kanji in Survival Japanese. We will create a fun little lessons for beginners.
See you next time! 
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