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Overview

JLPT Kanji Level Checker

Paste Japanese text to see which kanji belong to JLPT N5, N4, N3, N2, or N1+. Useful for learners checking material difficulty and authors targeting a specific JLPT level.

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JLPT Kanji Level Checker

Paste Japanese text to see which kanji belong to JLPT N5, N4, N3, N2, or N1+. Classification uses a published curated reference list — useful for learners and material authors.

Paste a Japanese passage to see the JLPT level breakdown of its kanji.

Reference lists: JLPT classification uses published pre-2010 reference lists (Tanos / Jōyō mapping). New JLPT has no official kanji list, but these references remain the most widely used baseline. Kanji not in N5–N2 are reported as N1+ (includes advanced Jōyō and non-Jōyō).

What you can solve

I'm studying for N3 but this reading material feels impossible — is it actually N3 level?

Paste a representative paragraph into the checker. If more than 20% of kanji fall into N2 or N1+, the material is actually upper-intermediate or advanced regardless of how it is marketed. Drop down to verified N3 material or look for editions with furigana support.

I'm building a JLPT N4 reading worksheet. How do I make sure no N1 kanji slipped in?

Paste your draft into the checker. The N1+ panel will list every kanji that is above N4 level. Either replace each one with a simpler equivalent (例えば → たとえば, 即時 → すぐに), add furigana, or drop the sentence. Re-check after edits.

When should I add furigana to a kanji and when can I assume the reader knows it?

Run the text through the checker. For an N3 audience, add furigana to N2 and N1+ kanji. For N5 audience, add furigana to anything above N5. Material that is consistently 1 level above the target audience without furigana support pushes readers away.

Are light novels really easier than news for JLPT learners?

Paste samples of each (1,000+ characters for stable averages) and compare the JLPT distributions. Light novels typically run 60–75% N5–N3, while newspaper articles often have 40–55% in N2+. The difference is real and measurable with this tool, not just a stereotype.

How do I export a study deck of all unique kanji at a specific level from a passage?

Paste the passage, find the panel for your target level (e.g., N3), and click Copy. The unique kanji at that level are copied as a single string — paste into Anki, JPDB, or any flashcard tool and split into individual cards.

Typical workflow

Guides for this workflow

Supporting guides that connect this tool to the broader category workflow.

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What is

What is JLPT Kanji Level Checker?

JLPT preparation and Japanese-language teaching both need an honest answer to one question: 'how hard is this passage actually?' Looking at a paragraph and guessing is unreliable, especially around the N4–N3 boundary where a single uncommon kanji can shift the difficulty band. This checker classifies every kanji in the input against the widely-used pre-2010 JLPT reference lists and shows the level distribution at a glance.

The tool reports both unique kanji per level and total occurrences per level, so you can see whether one rare kanji is repeated many times (e.g., a character name) or whether the text is consistently dense across levels. The unique-kanji list at each tier is copyable for Anki imports or follow-up vocabulary study.

How to use

How to use JLPT Kanji Level Checker

1. Paste a Japanese passage into the input area.

2. The stacked bar shows the percentage of total kanji at each JLPT level.

3. Each level panel lists the unique kanji at that level — copy the list directly for flashcard import.

4. If most kanji fall in N3+ while the target audience is N5, the passage needs rewriting.

Example

Example

Sample paragraph (12 unique kanji):
• N5: 5 kanji (42%) — 日, 本, 学, 文, 字
• N4: 4 kanji (33%) — 章, 教, 材, 確
• N3: 2 kanji (17%) — 観, 客
• N2: 1 kanji (8%) — 把
• N1+: 0

Common use cases

Common use cases

1. JLPT learners reading native material — confirm whether a passage matches their study level.

2. Teachers building N3/N4 reading comprehension worksheets that should not contain N1 kanji.

3. Translators localizing for a school-textbook audience that has a hard kanji ceiling.

4. Material authors deciding when to introduce furigana versus when the audience should already know the kanji.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Which JLPT list does the tool use?v
The widely-used pre-2010 reference lists (commonly distributed as the Tanos and Jōyō-mapped lists). The new JLPT does not publish an official kanji list, but these references remain the standard baseline for level-aware material design.
What does N1+ mean?v
N1+ is the bucket for any kanji not in N5–N2. It includes the bulk of N1 Jōyō kanji and any non-Jōyō kanji that show up in specialist, classical, or proper-noun contexts. Treat it as 'advanced or specialized.'
Why does the tool show 'occurrences' separately from 'unique kanji'?v
A single advanced kanji repeated 30 times — for example a recurring character name — inflates the occurrence count but represents only one item of vocabulary to learn. Looking at both numbers prevents you from over-rating the passage's difficulty.