How many kanji characters does the average japanese person know?

Question

im trying to memorise them but i dont want to set a too higher goal or a ..... not enough goal.....

Answer 1

Oh my, I don't think I could ever give a number to all the kanji I know.

By grade 6 I had learned about 1000. I think in chugakko I learned almost 2000, 1945 kanji.

I think I know over 4,000, maybe near 5,000 kanji. But, I think it's difficult for any Japanese to put number on how many they know. It's like Crazy Girl says, you maybe can't put a number on how many words you know in English.

Answer 2

The government established a list of 1,945 kanji that the average person is required to know. Any kanji not on this list that appear in newpapers etc will have a reading and or meaning beside it. So as a student of Japanese myself, I strive to learn those 1,945. A better goal for you might be to start with 1,000 kanji. Simply knowing the most commonly used 1,000 or so kanji will get you around many a Japanese text. Unfortunately, the committee that made this list is going to add about 200 kanji to it sometime this year. Better get studying!

Answer 3

The Japanese government says you need to know almost 2000 (literally more like 1,945) to be considered a fluent Japanese person. Of course those are more than that in Japanese but those 2000 are the ones most commonly used in menus, advertisements, newspapers, et cetera.

Answer 4

It is said native Japanese speakers (adult) know 3500~4000 kanji on the average.

I don't know how many kanji I know at all !

Answer 5

to pass the Japanese efficiency test mandated by the government it is basically required to know 2000 kanji.

Don't forget to learn kana too!!

Answer 6

we need to master 1,006 characters before graduate jr highschool. both reading and writing.

we need to read 1,945 characters as adult. to read books and newspapers.

we normally can read about 4,000 to 5,000 characters as high school graduate. we need to read lots of characters but writing.

we normally can read more than 5,000 characters as univ graduate. depends on the major.
actually nobody knows how many characters we can read/write in japan. but all educated japanese can read more than 1,945.

Answer 7

I'm not going to give an exact number, but I know as knowing Japanese as a third language, I know more kanji than my husband who speaks it natively, haha.

They say there's about 50,000 kanji that exist. A literate adult probably knows 2,000 kanji or more.

I probably know about that much give or take. I spend most of my time trying to learn complex kanji and then I write it and stump my hubby. I think he gets mad when I do it, haha.

Answer 8

No offense, but that's the same as a Japanese coming here and asking, "How many English words do you know?" Who knows? I know LOTS!

Japanese people know thousands of kanji! Obviously 1945 is learned in school. But you're going to learn a lot more than 2000 in your lifetime.