k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page3 2200

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · (5)

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · (7)

· · · · · · · · (10) (22)

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · (23)

2200 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1

2201 · · · · · · · 442

2200 · · · · · · · · · · · · · 451

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 452

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 471

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 478

50 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 486

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page5 2200

2,200

2100
2100 2008
100
2200
2100
NTT
1999 2000 14 (
)

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page6 2200

TEX

2014 7 8

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page7 2200

¼¼¼½ nichi jitsu

hi ka


  visit [come] to Japan

  day by day, every day
 the day before


 

50

2,136

( )

 3  2   

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page8 2200

/
( )

3
3 5

2,200
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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page9 2200

2,200

1999 2000 NTT 1 7

, .
2002
.
2005
127 , 41-50.
2005
41 , 41-63.
2014
21 , 1-32.
1994 .

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page10 2200

To Users of this Book

When discussing the challenges of studying Japanese, more than a few people
bring up kanji. It is common for people studying the language to feel some uncer-
tainty about just how many kanji they should learn, or how useful any particular
kanji will turn out to be. There are many kanji characters, and it takes time to learn
them. However, once you have made them your own, knowing kanji can be very
useful, and will contribute to your understanding of Japanese and will help ac-
celerate the speed with which the language can be learned. Learning kanji will
also enhance your ability to reason and help you be both more expressive and cre-
ative. The use of one kanji will often lead to the use of another kanji and so help
with building vocabulary. The present book has been prepared for the reference of
people who are sincerely aiming to make kanji a part of themselves.
This book presents 2200 kanji in the order of frequency of use in Japan, and
provides information related to the kanji. For any given kanji, one can learn how
it ranks in terms of the most frequently used kanji in Japan; what frequently used
words include this particular kanji; and how the kanji is used in context.
These materials are designed for students who have already studied some
kanji, and in some case the examples will use words or characters that are not
explained in this book. These materials include information on joyo (common use)
kanji, kyoiku (education) kanji, and kanji test materials, so we feel that, in addition
to foreign students who are studying Japanese, there are also many ways these
materials can be used by elementary, junior high and high school teachers and
those who are concerned with Japanese language education.
The content of this book is based on materials edited for use at Waseda Uni-
versity (Waseda University Foreign Student Textbook: 2100 Frequently Used Kanji, with
Examples) and published as Nihongo gakushu no tame no yoku tsukau jun kanji 2100
(KANJI 2100 Listed according to Frequency and Familiarity, Sanseido, 2008). The joyo
kanji list has recently been revised, so we have taken this opportunity to also ex-
pand our list by 100 characters, and changed our title to KANJI 2200 Listed according
to Frequency and Familiarity.
We have also revised the kanji frequency rankings. In KANJI 2100 Listed ac-
cording to Frequency and Familiarity, we used materials (NTT Database Series: Lexical
Properties of Japanese) that ranked the frequency of kanji usage based on a 14-year
sampling of Asahi Shimbun articles and the results of a study of kanji familiarity.
For the present book, we focused on studying the frequency of kanji appearances
in Japanese websites. This focus on frequency of appearance on the internet an-
ticipates that these days many students will be working with kanji via electronic
media. Also, for each individual kanji we obtained millions of pieces of data re-
lated to the character’s usage, and based our count on the variety of expressions in
use by a variety of people. We used a search engine in connection with our study

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page11 2200

of the frequency of kanji appearances on the internet.

We found it most interesting when we considered the study results and fre-
quency rankings together, and saw that kanji appearing in people’s everyday lives,
such as in the field of business, or personal interests, or entertainment would rise
past the top of the kanji rankings based on newspapers. However, it is certain that
the frequency of a kanji’s appearance on the internet will vary from day to day,
so no single study can be considered accurate. Because of this, we combined the
results from a number of studies and referred to other data as well when setting
our final rankings.

There are people who lament that they ‘forget the kanji right away.’ We like to
tell these folks that ‘Forgetting is a good thing. Only people who have forgotten a
character can recall it. People who never knew a character cannot bring it back to
mind.’ Escaping from the sense of helplessness in thoughts like ‘I’ll be forgetting
it at any rate’ may in fact be a hidden key to success when it comes to learning
kanji. It is our sincere hope that this book will prove useful as part of a process in
which students transition from learning frequently used kanji to a level where the
feeling is that one ‘couldn’t possibly forget’ a particular character that has been
encountered many times.

I would like to offer my warmest thanks to the people who participated in

the preparation of this book, including Professor Suzuki Yoshiaki from the Grad-
uate School of Japanese Applied Linguistics at Waseda University, who provided
guidance in the area of kanji pedagogy; Yanagi Yuri, Takano Ikuko, Sato Takeya,
Takayama Ryuji, Chikayama Masako and others at Sanseido; Kobayashi Hajime
from Livretech, who used the free software TEX to provide a precise job of type-
setting; Toma Neriko, who offered careful corrections; Iijima Michiko of Hokkaido
Information University, Yamada Kyoko of Waseda University, Kawasumi Yukiko
of the Nippon Institute of Technology who helped with data processing.

July 8, 2014
Tokuhiro Yasuyo

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How to Use this Book

This book provides the following information for each kanji.

¼¼¼½ nichi jitsu

hi ka


  visit [come] to Japan

  day by day, every day
 the day before


 

Kanji Number: A number is assigned to each kanji. The kanji is assigned a

rank based data indicating its degree of familiarity and on its frequency of
appearance in newspapers and in Japanese internet websites. The smaller the
number, the more familiar and the more frequently the kanji is used.
Kanji: The kanji is shown in a textbook font.
Kanji: The kanji is shown in Mincho and Gothic fonts.
Radical: The radical is shown.
Number of strokes: Shows number of strokes used in a kanji. Either the total
number of strokes or kanji number can be used to search the stroke count
index included at the back of the book. There is also an index arranged in the
order of the Japanese syllabary.
Joyo (“common use”) kanji: Marked with (Joyo) if the character is one of
the 2,136 joyo kanji.
Kyoiku (“education”) kanji: If a character is taught during elementary school,
it will be marked as (shogaku) plus the school year in which the character
is taught.
Kanji examination: If a character is included in the kanji examination, it will be
marked as (kanken) plus the level of the kanji exam at which the character
is tested.
Japanese language proficiency test: If a character is included among the top-
ics formerly used on the Japanese language proficiency test, it will be marked
‘x’ where ‘-x’ is used as a category marker. On the new Japanese language
proficiency test, kanji are not indicated based on topic, so the old topic stan-
dards have been followed. Specifically, the former test level 4 will be noted at
; the former level 3 will be ; the former level 2 will include /, and
the former level 1 will be .

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page13 2200

Personal name: In cases when a character not included in the joyo kanji list is
used for personal names, it will be marked (jinmei). A character that is
used often for personal names may be used in panel (19) below, where exam-
ples of names “XX-san” are included.
Stroke order: Shows the stroke order used to write the kanji.
On reading: Shows the on reading of the kanji. Single characters that operate
as suru verbs are shown with (suru/su) , etc. Also shows many
particles such as ga that are frequently used together with verbs. To make in-
put easier, roman letters (romaji) can also be used. These romaji are compliant
with computer word processing software conversions to roman letters. Be-
cause of this, pronunciation may not be represented correctly, so such input is
converted to Japanese text.
Kun reading: Shows the kun reading of the kanji. Also shows many particles
such as ga that are frequently used together with verbs, etc. To make input
easier, roman letters (romaji) can also be used.
Meaning: Provides simple explanation of a character’s meaning. The latter
part of the kanji number refers to the origins of the kanji, which can be useful
when memorizing characters.
Words: Shows selection of three words that use a particular kanji, and read-
ings are provided in both hiragana and in romanized form. An additional five
words are provided after the first three. These frequently used kanji vocabu-
lary items were selected for inclusion through reference to materials. In some
cases, there will be entries that include fewer than eight vocabulary words.
This may be because the character is used in a small number of specific words,
or it may primarily serve as a proper name or as part of a numeral. On the
other hand, many high frequency words may be included among the kanji
ahead of the rank indicated by the kanji number. In order to include as many
words as possible, we have avoided repeated entries. For example, the word
ongaku (music) will be used as an example for the character ‘gaku’, but not
under the character ‘on’ as well. The number of example words available
for each kanji has been given consideration when determining where to place
each example.
Word meanings: Shows English meaning of the word shown in (16). Simple
translations into English are provided, only for use as a reference.
Examples: Example of the usage of the word shown in (16). The examples
include many expressions commonly used in sentences. Example texts have
been prepared with the aim of including as many words using the kanji as
possible. This makes it possible to check how a word is used in a sentence,
and can be used as a reference when producing essays.

Finally, there is information at the end of the book on the joyo kanji and the

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Japanese language proficiency test kanji that are not included in the 2,200 charac-
ters list. Of these 2,200 characters, a list of kanji not included as joyo kanji is also
provided at the end of the book.

References
Amano, S. and Kondo, T. 1999-2000. NTT Database Series Lexical Properties of Japanese. Vol.
1-7. Sanseido.
The Japan Foundation and Association of International Education, Japan. 2002. Japanese
Language Proficiency Test: Test Content Specifications (Revised Edition). Bonjinsha.
Tokuhiro, Y. 2005. “Kanji Vocabulary for Intermediate Learners: An Index Based on Famil-
iarity and Frequency, and Conceptual Maps”. NIHONGO KYOIKU. 127, 41-50.
2005. “Development of Study Materials on Kanji and Kanji Vocabulary for Inter-
mediate and Advanced Students of Japanese”. Koza nihongo kyoiku. (Lectures on Japanese
Language Education) No. 41, 41-63.
2014. “A Proposal to Specify International Standards for Investigating the Com-
monality of Kanji Use and Kanji Identification”. Nagoya Daigaku Nihongo/ Nihon Bunkaron-
shu (Nagoya University Essays on Japanese Language and Culture). No. 21, 1-32.
Yamada, T. et al. 1989. Shinmeikai Japanese Dictionary, 4th Edition. Sanseido.

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k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page2 2200

 nichi jitsu
hi ka


  visit [come] to Japan

  day by day, every day
 the day before


 

 ichi itsu
hito hito-tsu

0001
0100   one person
  the first, the best
  general, common 4


 

 dai tai
oo oo-kii oo-ini oo-kina

 university
 adult
 embassy


 

 nen
toshi

  fiscal year, school year 100

  during the year 20
   this year 4 /


 

 chuu juu
naka

  China
  center, middle
 world


 

2
k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page441 2200

  ka ko

  N month (s) 1

 spot, place, part, point

   itemization 1. 2. 3.
 

  chaku





 setsu
nusu-mu ( wo)
hiso-kani

   theft, larceny 30



 ken

   economizing
   thrifty person
1901

2200
 

 sou
ko-gu ( wo)

 row, paddle



441
k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page442 2200


50

 bu hu  ru ryuu
 nade-ru ( wo) 




 ryou  saku
 aki-raka (na) ki shigarami
yarai

 en on tei hyou
ura-mu ( wo)  hinoe
ura-meshii ura-mi



 shou  sen /
 mikotonori  sen-jiru/zuru ( wo)
i-ru ( wo)
ni-ru ( wo)


 chuu  shitsu shichi

uchi magokoro  hiza

 

 en on  rou
a-teru ( wo kago ko-moru
ni) ate ataka-mo ( ga) ko-meru ( wo)
sanaga-ra zutsu


 men ben  sei

 mugiko  sugo-i
sugo-mu ( ga) susa-
majii
2201 

 kou  botsu hotsu

 keta niwa-kani

 bou myou  hai bai

 kao katachi ho-eru ( ga)




442
k-dic 2014/07/16 12:38 page451 2200



         
         
        
          
         
         
         
        
        
      
     
      
      
     
       
       
       
      
      
      
       
     
      
       
       
      
      
      
      
      
      
       
       
         
        
        
      

451