Navigating the everyday in Japan is much simpler when you’re familiar with kanji
If you live in Japan or will be moving there and know little to no Japanese, then at least practice these kanji for survival’s sake. Knowledge of these kanji will help you to do everyday tasks, such as check the weather, operate an AC unit, use a television, and fill out forms. There are many methods out there claiming to be the best way to learn kanji, but at the end of the day you just have to memorize them.
Studying kanji with a textbook is wrong?
According to research about how to study Kanji for foreigners, some Japanese language school teachers have not taught students very effective methods. If students are told to learn 500 kanji in a month’s time, it would be too much. That isn’t an effective way to learn kanji. Studying from textbooks alone won’t yield good results.
In addition, there are many videos and tutorials whose titles go along the lines of “How to learn kanji in three months” or “How to learn kanji fast and never forget them”, or something similar. However, most of the entries only give some basic tips, like “study at least one kanji every day”, or “go to Japan and live there for at least one year.”
If you have limited time to study, forget about all the boring kanji in Japanese textbooks and start studying something you will use in everyday life. These 30 kanji are very important to know in order to live in Japan. Please master all of them if you’re interested in studying Japanese.
About Weather
Americans don’t care as much about the weather on average compared to Japanese. Japanese people like checking the weather in the morning so they know what to wear for the day! No one wants to get too cold or get rained on on the way home from work or school. Here are some everyday kanji regarding weather.
- 天気 Tenki (Weather)
- 温度 Ondo (Temperature)
- 湿度 Shitsudo (Humidity)
- 晴れ Hare (Sunny)
- 雨 Ame (Rainy)
- 曇り Kumori (Cloudy)
Air conditioner (エアコン)
I taught so many exchange students how to use their AC units in Japan because you have to know these kanji to use AC! Japanese air conditioners have both cooling and heating features, so knowing those kanji is a great start.
- 冷房 Reibou (Cooling)
- You’ll need to know this kanji when the summer arrives in Japan because it’s very hot in Japan. Sometimes it gets up to 100F.
- 冷房 Reibou (Cooling)
- You’ll need to know this kanji when the summer arrives in Japan because it’s very hot in Japan. Sometimes it gets up to 100F.
- 冷房 Reibou (Cooling)
- You’ll need to know this kanji when the summer arrives in Japan because it’s very hot in Japan. Sometimes it gets up to 100F.
About TV
You’ll definitely use a tv if you like playing video games such as Playstation, Nintendo, and Xbox. To play these games on a tv, you should know basic kanji like those on a tv remote controller, so you can smoothly start playing without any struggles of using google translation to figure out which buttons you need to push.
- 音量 Onryou (Volume)
- 消音 Shouon (Mute)
- 電源 Dengen (Power button)
- 戻る Modoru (Return)
- 番組表 Bangumi hyou (Channel guide)
- 停止 Teishi (Pause)
- 再生 Saisei (Play)
Various common everyday kanji
You will see these kanji at public spaces like shopping malls, restaurants, trains and buses in Japan. You should definitely remember all of them, especially “open” and “close” in Japanese. Some restaurants just put the 閉 (close) outside of the restaurant to let customers know they are closed. Some trains and buses require you to push the button 開 (open) in order to open the door to get out.
- 押す Osu (Push)
- You’ll see this kanji when you use the door.
- 入る Hairu (Enter, Turn on)
- As same as before, you see this kanji at the door
- When you turn on the tv, you’ll see this kanji
- 切る Kiru (Turn off)
- When you turn off the tv or something like that, you’ll see this kanji.
- 止める Tomeru (Stop)
- You’ll see this kanji in many places in daily life.
- 流す Nagasu (Flush)
- You’ll see this button in the toilet
- 開く Hiraku (Open)
- 閉める Shimeru (Close)
Kanji for filling out forms
You will see these kanji when you need to file documents related to your personal information such as for your work, credit cards, or health insurance. Most of the time, there are English versions available, however, some places don’t offer them, so you should just remember these
- 氏名, 名前 Shimei, Namae (Name)
- 生年月日 Seinengappi (Birthday)
- 年齢 Nenrei (Age)
- 住所 Jusho (Address)
- 電話 Denwa (Phone number)
- 郵便番号 Yubin Bangou (Postal code)
- 性別 Seibetsu (Gender)
More Resources
If you’re interested in expanding your kanji knowledge even further then please check out these resources for Japanese language learners. My American fiance is learning kanji little by little too, so you can ask her tips on how to keep up studying kanji.
- Remembering the Kanji by Heisig (Book on Amazon)
- Kanji Teacher (App Store)
Thank you for reading this post. we hope you have a nice day and master these 30 kanji for everyday life in Japan! Please let us know if you have any questions about how to learn kanji.
Please also check this article about 10 surprising everyday cultural differences between Japan and the US. We compared the mindsets and experiences we’ve had and compiled the biggest differences in our daily lives.