JLPT N2 kanji list

367 kanji - the full N2 character set as reconstructed from the pre-2010 official syllabus.

When a company in Japan asks for a JLPT level on a resume, it is usually N2. At this upper-intermediate threshold a learner can read newspapers and business writing with effort but no constant lookup, and the same goes for university material.

N2 characters cover professional and academic vocabulary: business and economics, public administration, journalism, the sciences, and the wider end of literary writing. New characters at this level are individually rarer than at N3 (you might go a whole day of casual reading without encountering some of them), but they appear so densely in formal text that not knowing them costs you. The list also introduces a notable share of characters that share readings or visual elements with N3 and N1 entries, so confusion errors become a meaningful study cost. Compared to N3, the N2 set leans more on understanding kanji combinations in context than learning new isolated characters - many N2 entries are familiar from N3 vocabulary in different roles. By coincidence, N2 and N3 each add 367 new characters.

WaniKani coverage

Nothing in N2 is missing from WaniKani, which surprises people who expect the harder tiers to thin out. What N2 costs you is time rather than coverage: 60% has been taught by level 30 and 83% by level 40, with the set completing at level 51 on the same level N3 does.

Want to see exactly which of these you have already learned? The JLPT coverage tool ties your live WaniKani progress to the lists on this site, with per-level percentages and the missing characters highlighted.

All 367 N2 kanji

Other JLPT levels

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