Here you will learn kanji, the characters that are used in Japanese together with hiragana and katakana. (To find out more about the Japanese writing system, go to Explore Japan.)

Many kanji are made up of pictures drawn by people. If you click on the pictures below, the kanji with the same meaning as the picture will appear. Can you find all the kanji hidden in the picture?

The kanji you can see here are among those learned by first- and second-year Japanese elementary school students.