Hiragana is a fundamental writing system of Japanese that developed during the 8th–9th century (Heian period). It evolved from Man’yōgana, where Chinese characters were written in a cursive, simplified style to represent Japanese sounds. Over time, these flowing forms became the standardized Hiragana script used today.
Hiragana works as a phonetic syllabary, meaning each character represents a sound (such as ka, ki, ku) rather than an individual meaning. It is mainly used for native Japanese words, grammatical endings, particles, and words that do not use complex characters.
There are 46 basic characters, known as the gojūon set. With added marks (dakuten and handakuten) and combination sounds, it can represent many more pronunciations, making it essential for reading and writing Japanese.
Katakana is one of the three writing systems used in Japanese, developed around the 9th century by Buddhist scholars as a simplified form of Chinese characters. Unlike Hiragana, Katakana has sharp, straight strokes and is mainly used to write foreign loanwords, names, scientific terms, onomatopoeia (sound effects), and for emphasis, similar to italics in English.
Katakana is also a phonetic syllabary, where each character represents a sound rather than meaning. It contains 46 basic characters, arranged in the same sound order as Hiragana, and can be modified with additional marks to create extra sounds used in modern pronunciation.
Kanji N5 refers to the beginner-level Chinese characters required for the N5 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, used in the Japanese language. Kanji were originally introduced to Japan from China around the 5th century, and they became an essential part of the writing system for expressing meaning-based words such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
At the N5 level, learners study about 80–100 basic Kanji characters. Each Kanji carries its own meaning and may have more than one pronunciation depending on how it is used in a word. For example, a single character can represent ideas like “day,” “person,” or “water,” making reading more meaningful rather than purely phonetic.
Kanji N5 focuses on everyday vocabulary—numbers, directions, time, family, and common actions—helping beginners build a foundation for reading simple sentences, signs, and daily-life materials before advancing to higher levels of the JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test).