JLPT N5 Kanji Book - Learn and Practice 80 Kanji for N5

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky

JLPT N5 Kanji Book by Dr. Wesley C. Robertson supports early Japanese learners in mastering the 80 kanji required for the JLPT N5. Each kanji page presents readings and a learning tip, then guides writing practice through stroke tracing and freehand repetition. The core method moves quickly into using the kanji to form high-frequency words and then solve short example sentences, often using grammar within an N5-level vocabulary scope.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages124

Reading Time5 h 12 min

AccessFree to download

80 Kanji for JLPT N5

Kanji presentation: readings and tips

Writing practice: tracing and freehand

Using kanji in high-frequency words

Example sentences and rewrite/translate exercises

JLPT N5 KANJI BOOK Created by Dr. Wesley C. Robertson, Chair of Languages & Cultures at Macquarie University. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Ctlr + click on a kanji to jump to it! | 一 | 二 | 三 | 四 | 五 | 六 | 七 | 八 | 九 | 十 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 百 | 千 | 万 | 円 | 日 | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | | 土 | 大 | 中 | 小 | 上 | 下 | 人 | 女 | 男 | 子 | | 父 | 母 | 山 | 川 | 天 | 気 | 国 | 今 | 何 | 時 | | 午 | 前 | 後 | 右 | 左 | 毎 | 年 | 北 | 南 | 東 | | 西 | 外 | 名 | 先 | 本 | 間 | 高 | 半 | 長 | 白 | | 分 | 雨 | 電 | 車 | 友 | 休 | 入 | 出 | 行 | 来 | | 学 | 校 | 食 | 見 | 聞 | 書 | 生 | 話 | 語 | 読 | And Ctrl+click HERE to jump to the answer key! Or Ctrl+B to see all the bookmarks. This book is designed to assist early Japanese learners in mastering the 80 kanji required to pass N5. While it can be used from scratch, it is probably best utilized as a form of review and test preparation by students who have at least familiarized themselves with the contents found in N5 . The goal of this book is to avoid presenting kanji as just an abstract set of images, but rather as something that is used. So while each kanji is first presented next to it’s readings along with a tip from me, with a section below provided for practicing how to write them (something I do believe is important for muscle memory), the main practice moves immediately into using the kanji to write various Japanese words. The words are not necessarily all ones found on N5 tests, but they are all high-frequency terms which you will benefit from knowing. The final part of each page then has two sentences which use as many words featuring that page’s kanji as possible. I gave priority to the number of kanji over everything else, including naturalness, so some of the sentences are very odd. My hope though is that by using the kanji to write words in a memorable sentence (even if memorable for its stupidity), and by seeing how many uses each kanji has, you will memorize them better than through other methods. The example sentences contain words that you are unlikely to know. I have tried to keep them all within the grammar of N5, but there maybe some bleed into N4. The intent is that you will try to solve the sentences with a dictionary in hand, and in doing so not only memorize the kanji, but also learn a bunch of (mostly) useful vocabulary and solidify your grammar knowledge. When solving these sentences, both a simple and difficult method are possible: the easy way is to keep everything in hiragana except for the red highlighted parts, which are written in the kanji. The hard way, which I recommend, is to write the entire sentence looking up the kanji for all words. This will get you ready for future kanji, and, while time consuming, get you used to producing sentences very similar to “real” Japanese. Or do both in order! More practice is never bad. All in all, I hope you find this book helpful, and feel that it moves kanji from something abstract you store in your brain to something you can use right away to produce Japanese. And yes, there will be an N4 book…but at the pace this one took me it will likely come out late 2025. See you then. | | | | | | Meaning | | | One | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | Kun yomi | | | ひと・ひとつ | | | | | | | | | | | On yomi | | | いち・いつ | | | | | | | | | | |
This kanji is obviously one of the easiest to learn, but it’s actually so simple that 壱 is used instead sometimes to prevent fraud. No one wants their invoice for 一万円 turned into 二万円just by one pen stroke! | | | | | | | | | 一 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Stroke order | Trace the kanji twice, and then write it freehand ten times
| | --- | --- | 一 Let’s learn some useful words that use this kanji! | | 一つ | 一人 | 一緒に | 一番 | 一日 | 一万円 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | -

FAQs

What is the main goal of the JLPT N5 Kanji Book?

To help early Japanese learners master the 80 kanji required for passing JLPT N5 and to make kanji usable in real writing rather than only memorized as images.

How does each page structure kanji learning?

Each page introduces the kanji with readings and a learning tip, provides a section to practice writing (tracing and freehand), then moves into using the kanji to write words and complete example sentences.

What practice approach is recommended for solving the example sentences?

An easy approach keeps most text in hiragana and only uses highlighted red kanji, while the recommended hard approach is to write the entire sentence by looking up the kanji for words you need.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky