Chinese Characters

There are about 2,000 basic characters that every Japanese should know. Japanese learn 996 of these - the most essential ones - during the six years of elementary school. They call the Chinese characters KANJI. Japanese have to learn to read them and write them. This is one of the main tasks for every Japanese student. But with the 2,000 basic KANJI , they can read almost anything in the daily press.

It is impossible to say how many chinese characters are there. Even the experts disagree. Some say there are about 60,000, others say 80,000 or more.

All Japanese should know at least the 2,000 basic kanji. But most of them, especially university graduates, know thousands more as well.