How much of the Joyo kanji does WaniKani cover?
The Joyo kanji are the 2,136 characters the Japanese Ministry of Education sets as essential for reading general-purpose Japanese - the basis for newspaper, signage, and most published prose. WaniKani teaches virtually all of Grades 1 through 6 (the elementary-school kyoiku kanji) and a substantial chunk of the secondary-grade extension.
The numbers below are by Joyo grade, not WaniKani level - so they don't depend on how far you are. To see how much of each grade you have personally learned, see the Joyo coverage page once you're logged in.
WaniKani vs Joyo, at a glance
| Grade | Kanji | WaniKani covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | 80 | 100% | Foundational. Numbers, body parts, basic verbs. |
| Grade 2 | 160 | 100% | Everyday vocabulary; weather, family, simple adjectives. |
| Grade 3 | 200 | 100% | School subjects and broader daily-life vocabulary. |
| Grade 4 | 200 | 100% | More abstract concepts; behaviour, society, government. |
| Grade 5 | 185 | 99% | Politics, economy, biology - readings get less obvious. |
| Grade 6 | 181 | 99% | Final year of elementary - last of the kyoiku kanji. |
| Secondary (Grade 9) | 1130 | 75% | Junior-high and beyond. The biggest set and the widest WK gaps. |
Why "Grade 9" isn't a real grade
Japanese schools use elementary grades 1-6 to introduce the kyoiku kanji. The remaining Joyo characters are taught across junior high and senior high, but the Ministry doesn't label them by specific year. The 1130-strong "Grade 9" bucket here is a community convention (borrowed from wkstats) that lumps together every Joyo kanji not in Grades 1-6. It's the bucket where WaniKani's coverage gaps actually appear.
Grade 1 kanji (80)
Foundational. Numbers, body parts, basic verbs.
Grade 2 kanji (160)
Everyday vocabulary; weather, family, simple adjectives.
Grade 3 kanji (200)
School subjects and broader daily-life vocabulary.
Grade 4 kanji (200)
More abstract concepts; behaviour, society, government.
Grade 5 kanji (185)
Politics, economy, biology - readings get less obvious.
Grade 6 kanji (181)
Final year of elementary - last of the kyoiku kanji.
Secondary (Grade 9) kanji (1130)
Junior-high and beyond. The biggest set and the widest WK gaps.
See your own Joyo coverage
The numbers above are aggregate. To see exactly which Joyo kanji you have already learned, broken down by grade and tied to your live WaniKani progress, paste a personal access token on the login page. Wanilog never stores your data on a server.
Already logged in? Go to my Joyo coverage. Or export a Joyo grid share card showing every kanji coloured by your SRS stage.
Related coverage tools
- JLPT coverage - WaniKani's overlap with N5 through N1.
- Frequency coverage - how WaniKani lines up with the most-used kanji in modern text.
- WaniKani FAQ - SRS intervals, level-up rules, leech detection, and more.