Students who have learned to read and write the kanji taught in Japanese schools run into the same difficulty that Japan university students themselves face: the number of characters included in the approved list is not sufficient for advanced reading and writing. Although each academic specialization requires supplementary kanji of its own, there is considerable overlap. With that in mind, this book employs the same methods as Volumes 1 and 2 of Remembering the Kanji to introduce additional characters useful for upper-level proficiency, bringing the total of all three volumes to 3,000 kanji.

The 3rd edition has been updated to reflect the 196 new kanji approved by the government in 2010, all of which have been relocated in Volume 1. The selection of 800 new kanji is based on frequency lists and cross-checked against a number of standard Japanese kanji dictionaries.

Separate parts of the book are devoted to learning the writing and reading of these characters. The writing requires only a handful of new “primitive elements.” A few are introduced as compound primitives (“measure words”) or as alternative forms for standard kanji. The majority of the kanji are organized according to the elements introduced in Volume 1.

As in Volume 2, Chinese readings are arranged into groups for easy reference, enabling the student to take advantage of the readings assigned to “signal primitives” already learned.

Seven indexes include hand-drawn samples of the new characters introduced and cumulative lists of the key word and primitive meaning, and of the Chinese and Japanese pronunciations, that appear in all 3 volumes of the series.

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Following the first volume of Remembering the Kanji, the present work provides students with helpful tools for learning the pronunciation of the kanji. Behind the notorious inconsistencies in the way the Japanese language has come to pronounce the characters it received from China lie several coherent patterns. Identifying these patterns and arranging them in logical order can reduce dramatically the amount of time spent in the brute memorization of sounds unrelated to written forms.

Many of the “primitive elements,” or building blocks, used in the drawing of the characters also serve to indicate the “Chinese reading” that particular kanji use, chiefly in compound terms. By learning one of the kanji that uses such a “signal primitive,” one can learn the entire group at the same time. In this way, Remembering the Kanji 2 lays out the varieties of phonetic pattern and offers helpful hints for learning readings, that might otherwise appear completely random, in an efficient and rational way. Individual frames cross-reference the kanji to alternate readings and to the frame in volume 1 in which the meaning and writing of the kanji was first introduced.

A parallel system of pronouncing the kanji, their “Japanese readings,” uses native Japanese words assigned to particular Chinese characters. Although these are more easily learned because of the association of the meaning to a single word, the author creates a kind of phonetic alphabet of single syllable words, each connected to a simple Japanese word, and shows how they can be combined to help memorize particularly troublesome vocabulary.

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Updated to include the 196 new kanji approved by the Japanese government in 2010 as “general-use” kanji, the sixth edition of this popular text aims to provide students with a simple method for correlating the writing and the meaning of Japanese characters in such a way as to make them both easy to remember. It is intended not only for the beginner, but also for the more advanced student looking for some relief from the constant frustration of forgetting how to write the kanji, or for a way to systematize what he or she already knows.

The author begins with writing the kanji because―contrary to first impressions―it is in fact simpler than learning how to the pronounce them. By ordering the kanji according to their component parts or “primitive elements,” and then assigning each of these parts a distinct meaning with its own distinct image, the student is led to harness the powers of “imaginative memory” to learn the various combinations that make up the kanji. In addition, each kanji is given its own key word to represent the meaning, or one of the principal meanings, of that character. These key words provide the setting for a particular kanji’s “story,” whose protagonists are the primitive elements.

In this way, one is able to complete in a few short months a task that would otherwise take years. Armed with the same skills as Chinese or Korean students, who know the meaning and writing of the kanji but not their Japanese pronunciations, one is then in a much better position to learn the readings (which are treated in a separate volume).

Remembering the Kanji has helped tens of thousands of students advance towards literacy at their own pace, and to acquire a facility that traditional methods have long since given up on as all but impossible for those not raised with the kanji from childhood.

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This is an invaluable study guide and practice book for learning basic Japanese kanji.

Learning Japanese Kanji Practice Book is intended for beginning students or experienced speakers who need to practice their written Japanese. Kanji are an essential part of the Japanese language and together with kana (hiragana and katakana) comprise written Japanese.

This book presents the kanji characters that are most commonly used. All the kanji and related vocabulary words in this book are those that students are expected to know for Level 5 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. (JLPT). Characters that appear in the AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam are flagged. Readings, meanings, and common compounds are presented. The correct method of writing each character is clearly indicated, and practice boxes with strokes that can be traced are provided, along with empty boxes for freehand writing practice.

Lots of exercises are included to give students the opportunity to practice writing sentences containing the Kanji. Indexes at the back allow you to look up the characters by their readings and English meanings.

This kanji book includes:

• Step-by-step stroke order diagrams for each character.
• Special boxes with grid lines to practice writing characters.
• Extra printable practice grids
• Words and phrases using each kanji.
• Romanizations (romanji) to help identify and pronounce every word.

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My First Japanese Kanji Book is an inventive and unique introduction to kanji for children.

Written by the mother-daughter team of Eriko and Anna Sato, this lovely book introduces 109 kanji characters to children with poems and illustrations. It includes all the Japanese Government-specified first-grade level kanji characters and a sprinkling of simple second to sixth-grade characters.

The kanji are introduced in the context of 36 colorful paintings and poems by 14-year-old Anna Sato, herself a kanji learner. Each of the poems is presented in both Japanese and English, and all kanji are accompanied by furigana (small hiragana letters), stroke-order diagrams, sample vocabulary and boxes for writing practice.

A charming and educational volume, My First Japanese Kanji Book can be used as a self-study text, a supplementary material in Japanese language schools or a gift book for family or friends.

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A great story can lead a reader on a journey of discovery—especially if it’s presented in two languages!

Beautifully illustrated in a traditional style, Japanese Stories for Language Learners offers five compelling stories with English and Japanese language versions appearing on facing pages. Taking learners on an exciting cultural and linguistic journey, each story is followed by detailed translator’s notes, Japanese vocabulary lists, and grammar points along with a set of discussion questions and exercises.

The first two stories are very famous traditional Japanese folktales: Urashima Taro (Tale of a Fisherman) and Yuki Onna (The Snow Woman). These are followed by three short stories by notable 20th century authors:

• Kumo no Ito (The Spider’s Thread) by Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927)
• Oborekaketa Kyodai (The Siblings Who Almost Drowned) by Arishima Takeo (1878-1923)
• Serohiki no Goshu (Gauche the Cellist) by Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933)

Reading these stories in the original Japanese script—and hearing native-speakers read them aloud in the accompanying free audio recording—helps students at every level deepen their comprehension of the beauty and subtlety of the Japanese language. Learn Japanese the fun way—through the country’s rich literary history.

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Learn over 2,000 Japanese Kanji characters with this user-friendly Japanese language-learning book.

This unique Kanji study guide provides a comprehensive introduction to all the Kanji characters on the Japanese Ministry of Education’s official Joyo (“General Use”) list—providing detailed notes on the historical development of each character as well as all information needed by students to read and write them. As fascinating as it is useful, this is the book every Japanese language learners keeps on his or her desk and visits over and over.

This Kanji book includes:

• Clear, large-sized entries
• All of the General Use Joyo Kanji Characters
• Japanese readings and English meanings
• stroke-count
• stroke order
• usage examples
• mnemonic hints for easy memorization

The components which make up each character are detailed, and the Kanji are graded in difficulty according to Ministry of Education guidelines, allowing students to prioritize the order in which the Kanji are learned and track their progress. This book is essential to anyone who is planning to take the official Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and will appeal to beginning students as well as those who wish to attain higher-level mastery of the Japanese language. It is the only book that also provides historical and etymological information about the Japanese Kanji.

This latest edition has been updated to include all of the 2,136 Kanji on the expanded Joyo list issued by the Japanese government in 2010. Many entries have been revised to include the most recent research on character etymologies.

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This book provides useful information about verbs for beginning and intermediate students of Japanese. It’s a handy reference to turn to when you have questions about Japanese verbs and how to use them.

Charts and tables make the key points understandable at a glance, and the many example sentences show how to use verbs correctly in context. This book does not attempt a complete exposition of Japanese grammar. Instead, it provides a wealth of practical information in one specific area for people who need to speak or write Japanese.

The book is organized according to how verbs are used. If you want to know how to ask a person to do something, for example, just check the Index for “Asking Favors and Making Requests” and go to that page.

Special sections are devoted to areas of Japanese verbs that often cause difficulty for students, including polite forms, causatives, passives, and transitive/intransitive pairs. Each of these areas is covered clearly and in detail with charts, explanations, and example sentences.

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“One of the best modern texts. Highly recommended.” —The Japan Times

Complete, compact and authoritative—this Japanese language book provides all the information needed to learn kanji and kana, including the 92 hiragana and katakana phonetic symbols (known collectively as Japanese Kana) and the 2,136 standard Joyo Kanji characters that every Japanese person learns in school. This new and thoroughly revised edition reflects recent changes made to the official Joyo kanji list by the Japanese government.

The kana and kanji are presented efficiently and systematically which helps you learn them quickly and retain what you have learned to improve your mastery of the Japanese language. The ability to read Japanese and write Japanese is an essential skill for any student and will build on their previous knowledge and improve their overall capacity to learn Japanese. A concise index allows you to look up the Kanji in three different ways (so the book also serves as a Japanese Kanji dictionary) and extra spaces are provided to allow you to practice writing Japanese.

Japanese Kanji and Kana contains:

• All 2,136 official Joyo kanji with readings and definitions.
• Characters are graded by their JLPT examination levels.
• Up to 5 useful vocabulary compounds for each kanji.
• Brush and pen cursive forms as well as printed forms.
• 19 tables summarizing key information about the characters.
• Kanji lookup indexes by radicals, stroke counts and readings.

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English-speaking travelers to Japan will find this informal introduction a painless way to gain a fundamental grasp of Japanese. The color-illustrated book presents words and phrases for meeting and greeting people, asking directions, getting hotel accommodations, dining, shopping, getting help in an emergency, and much more. The book’s extra features include a 40-page pull-out bilingual dictionary that uses phonetic spellings of Japanese words, language quizzes and puzzles, and perforated pull-out vocabulary cards. This language teaching program is suitable both for adults and older children.

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