JLPT N5 Kanji List

About the N5 kanji

The N5 level has 80 kanji in this list, laid out in 4 consecutive groups of up to 20 cards that follow the order of the list, not stroke count or topic. Every N5 card shows the on'yomi and kun'yomi readings and the meaning in English. Here are a few of the first kanji on the list: 日 (day), 一 (one), 国 (country), 人 (person), 年 (year).

N5 is the starting point: numbers, days, people and the words that turn up constantly in simple texts. Because the level is small, it is easy to read the whole list in one sitting and come back whenever a reading slips away.

A note on N5: the JLPT has not published official kanji lists since 2010, so level lists are usually community-compiled and vary from one source to another. This list may not match others, so if you are preparing for the exam, cross-check it against your own materials and treat it as a study aid, not an official list.