When learning Japanese, it is important that you master hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana is used to represent sounds, while Katakanas are used for words borrowed from other languages or abbreviations. Due to the context in which each character is used, kanji conveys meaning with just one letter instead of a single syllable.

In Japanese writing, there are no strict rules, so only using Hiragana is 100% acceptable for writing.

The feelings, however, should be known to you. Hiragana is simple and tender. When used frequently, the sentence sounds childish.

Can you survive in Japan only knowing hiragana?

Even though you know hiragana, you can survive in Japan. You may find this strange, since Japanese has three main writing systems, but it is true. The requirements of speaking or understanding Japanese do not include knowing kanji or katakana. With hiragana, you can have understandable conversations with Japanese-speaking people

Be cautious, though. Japanese language understanding is severely limited without learning katakana and kanji.

Reading and writing will be difficult without kanji

There are many Japanese writings that you cannot read and understand if you do not understand kanji characters. Kanji characters appear in most Japanese writing pieces. To make the whole piece meaningful, we added these kanji characters. You will not be able to read if you do not understand kanji.

In addition to trouble reading Japanese, you will also have difficulty writing any meaningful Japanese piece. Because of this, you will be able to determine your level of literacy in Japanese with kanji.

You should also consider this if

• Books for kids and toddlers do not require you to know kanji

Despite these limitations, reading Japanese without kanji is not impossible. Until around 7 years old, most Japanese kids do not learn kanji. They usually don’t use kanji characters in their books. Their vocabulary and grammar are simplified by Furigana and other simple writing systems, making it easier for them to read.

As a result, even without knowing kanji, you can read books for children and toddlers. What is the point of reading books written for children or toddlers to an adult?

Therefore, kanji is still required to read anything meaningful.

How does the Japanese language benefit from kanji characters?

The following are some benefits of kanji characters.

• It is used for indicating clauses

The hiragana characters can be used in a complete sentence, but such a sentence will be too complicated for anyone to read. In Japanese, clauses are therefore indicated by kanji characters. You will be able to comprehend where words start and end when you learn Kanji. With Kanji characters, you can get the meaning of a specific sentence by consulting the clause.

• It helps you to guess the meanings of Japanese words

The meaning of each word cannot be known in any language. A strange word can be deciphered through certain patterns or structures. When you do not know the meaning of a Japanese word, you can use kanji to guess its meaning. In other words, if you do not know kanji writing, you will find yourself looking at strange words when reading.

• It helps you to identify homonyms

Homonyms are words with similar sounds and/or spellings but have different meanings. Notably, there are numerous homonyms in English and several other languages including Japanese.

When homonyms are written in hiragana, you will not be able to identify their meanings. Fortunately, kanji characters are often added to homonyms to make it easy for anyone to differentiate the words. So, if you don’t know kanji, you will be lost when you come across homonyms.

As shown above, kanji plays a key role in reading and understanding Japanese words and sentences.

How do hiragana and katakana differ from kanji?

At the beginning of this post, we explain that hiragana, katakana, and kanji are the three major writing scripts of Japanese. But these scripts perform different functions. So, let’s shed more light on how these three systems differ.

• Hiragana

Hiragana is believed to be the most important Japanese script as it is utilized for native Japanese words. It is usually the first Japanese script that you will learn when studying the Japanese language.

• Katakana

In the Japanese language, lots of words are imported from foreign languages. Since these words don’t have direct native meanings, katakana is used for such imported words.

Along with kanji, these writing systems function together to help you to read, write, speak, and listen to Japanese words.

Only a few kanji characters are enough

Currently, more than 2000 kanji characters have been identified by the Japanese government as what you need to be considered as being literate in Japanese. Even highly educated Japanese people often require more kanji characters.

But you don’t have to be intimated by the number. This is because you don’t need thousands of kanji characters to read in the Japanese language correctly. As stated by some Japanese language experts, you only need around 100 kanji characters to read many basic Japanese writing pieces. In fact, you can read a few books, some anime subtitles, some aspects of newspapers, etc. with just 100 kanji characters.

Can You Read Japanese without Kanji

This leads us to the important question about reading Japanese. Is it possible to read the Japanese language without kanji? In the actual sense, you cannot read any meaningful Japanese writing without having some understanding of kanji. This is because every Japanese writing piece has a few elements of kanji characters that give meaning to the whole piece. Therefore, if you don’t know kanji, you will not be able to comprehend what you are reading.

However, you don’t need a lot of kanji characters to read in Japanese. With about 100 characters, you can start reading some basic Japanese writings. With around 2,000, you are regarded as a literate Japanese speaker as stipulated by the Japanese government. However, if you are a highly educated person with a top-notch understanding of Japanese, you will need more kanji characters.

It is important to realize that learning kanji doesn’t determine whether you can speak Japanese or not. Several people in Japan cannot recognize a single kanji character but speak the Japanese language very well.

Although you can learn Japanese without kanji, it is not advisable. This is because of some reasons that will be described below:

Not learning kanji impedes your Japanese literacy level

Before you ditch kanji in your journey to learn Japanese, you should understand that kanji is still important if you want to be literate in the language. In other words, if you want to be able to write and read in the Japanese language, it is not reasonable to learn Japanese without kanji.

Based on experiences, it is near impossible for anyone to read the Japanese language without understanding kanji. The Japanese language doesn’t use any sort of empty spaces between words. Therefore, kanji is utilized to indicate the ending of a word and the beginning of another word. That is, it breaks a sentence down to make it easy for anyone to read. 

Hence, as long as you have not learned kanji, reading will be a herculean task for you. Even if you try to read without kanji, there will be so many errors in your interpretation of each sentence because different words will be jumbled.

Not learning kanji confuses the meaning of words

In English and other languages, the contexts often determine the particular meanings of many words. The same thing applies to the Japanese language. In some cases, kanji characters are the ones that will show you the context of a particular sentence written in hiragana. Hence, you will rely on kanji to determine the meaning of the words. Therefore, if you have learned Japanese without kanji, such words will look confusing to you.

In addition, if you have learned the Japanese language without kanji, there will be several instances where you will say or read some awesome phrases without understanding their real significance or meaning. Just imagine how bad that will be for you if you are saying something without even knowing its meaning.

It will be almost impossible to pass the JLPT without kanji

Are you planning to write the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)? If yes, you should understand you cannot do so without kanji. From the easiest and lowest level of JLPT (N5) to the hardest and highest level (N1), you will be tested on your understanding of kanji. In fact, you are expected to understand some kanji characters before taking any level. By the time you are writing JLPT N1, which is the highest level of the test, you would have understood more than 1,000 kanji characters.

Overall, without kanji, you cannot pass this test. Of course, there are tons of consequences for not passing the exam. The most significant include difficulty with getting some job opportunities as many employers will request you to submit your JLPT certification. So, if you want to get a great job in Japan, your refusal to learn kanji may be a barrier.

Learning without kanji may be impossible in some cases

If you plan to learn Japanese from the book, it will be near impossible for you to do without learning some basic kanji. This is because kanji are regularly written in most Japanese books. Therefore, you will need some understanding of kanji to be able to make sense of what you are reading in the book.

Notably, you can only learn Japanese without Japanese if you are living in Japan or around Japanese speakers that communicate with you in the language. Otherwise, it will be impossible to learn Japanese without kanji.

Learning kanji is cool

Even though you may not agree, writing in kanji is actually cool. This is because this Japanese writing script looks awesome. Therefore, if you are crafting out any idea with this kanji, it will look beautiful. So, if you don’t want to miss out on such a sweet feeling, you should not shy away from learning kanji along with other essentials of the Japanese language.

Imagine going out and not being able to read and understand signposts, restaurants’ menus, posters, etc. Well, this is what you may experience if you learn Japanese without kanji. So, although you can learn Japanese without kanji, it is not advisable.

Although many individuals are running away from learning kanji because it is generally believed to be difficult to learn, you should not be discouraged. As long as you are fully committed to learning, it could be easy for you to learn kanji and even become an expert at using this awesome writing system. Join a Japanese language class, get the right resources, and continue studying until you reach the level of fluency you have always desired in the language.