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Published August 13, 2026. Updated September 6, 2026

What should you study for the JLPT N5?

Four things, in this order: kana, vocabulary, kanji, and basic grammar. Kana comes first because it is a prerequisite rather than part of the syllabus. Then roughly 800 words, roughly 100 kanji, and the grammar of polite everyday Japanese, which is the copula, the core particles, the two adjective types, and the ます (masu) and て (te) verb forms.

Those counts are estimates, not rules. The JLPT organizers do not publish vocabulary or kanji lists, and have not since the test was restructured in 2010. Their stated position is that the test measures the ability to use the language, not memorized lists. Every “official N5 list” online is a reconstruction from past papers and the official practice workbooks.

Below: what the official level description actually asks for, what the test looks like on the day, and a plan with hour ranges from published sources.

Step 1: kana is a prerequisite, not part of N5

The official N5 reading standard is being “able to read and understand typical expressions and sentences written in hiragana, katakana, and basic kanji.” That sentence does the work: everything on the paper is written in kana or kanji, so kana is not something you study alongside N5 vocabulary. It is the thing you finish before N5 vocabulary means anything.

Both syllabaries, including the voiced and combination forms, come to around 100 characters each. Most learners get through them in one to three weeks of daily practice. Do not stretch this out. Kana is the one part of Japanese with a genuine finish line, and it is worth sprinting.

Katakana is the one people skip, and skipping it is a mistake. N5 listening and reading are full of loanwords, and a learner who can read hiragana but stalls on カタカナ loses points on words they already know in English. If you need a starting point, our hiragana guide and katakana guide cover the reading order and the characters that get confused with each other.

Step 2: how much vocabulary does N5 need?

The working convention is about 800 words. Meguro Language Center, a Japanese-language school in Tokyo, publishes a free N5 vocabulary list of roughly that size, assembled from the official N5 practice workbook, the vocabulary from the old Level 4 test, and a set of common greetings. That is how every credible N5 list gets built, which is also why they disagree at the edges.

Treat 800 as an order of magnitude. Two things matter more than the number:

For reference, Moji - Learn Japanese Daily for iPhone carries 746 words tagged N5 in its own catalog, plus 208 kana-stage cards that teach the hiragana and katakana characters themselves, each paired with a real first word. That 746 is a fact about our catalog, not about the JLPT. It lands near the ~800 convention because both are drawn from the same core of high-frequency everyday Japanese.

Step 3: how many kanji does N5 need?

Prep publishers converge on about 100 kanji, with individual lists running from roughly 80 to 112. Again, no official number exists.

What matters more than the count is which kanji, and here the lists agree almost completely, because N5 kanji are the unavoidable ones: numbers 一 (ichi, one) through 十 (juu, ten), days and months, 日 (nichi/hi, day or sun), 人 (jin/hito, person), 大 (dai/oo, big), 小 (shou/chii, small), directions, and a small set of everyday verbs like 見る (miru, to see) and 行く (iku, to go).

Two practical notes. First, N5 kanji questions mostly test reading, not writing, so recognizing a character and knowing its reading in context carries you further than stroke-perfect handwriting. Second, kanji at this level are best learned attached to words rather than in isolation, because a character’s reading changes depending on the word it sits in, and an isolated character gives you nothing to anchor that to.

Step 4: what grammar shows up at N5

There is no official grammar list either, but prep lists cluster tightly. A typical published N5 grammar list runs to around 84 points, and those points fall into a small number of families:

This is a sketch, not a syllabus. The point is that N5 grammar is small and highly systematic, which is why a textbook works well here: Genki I or Minna no Nihongo I both cover roughly this ground in order. Grammar is the part of N5 that an app-only approach handles worst, and that includes ours. Moji teaches vocabulary, kanji, and kana, not grammar drills. Pair it with a textbook or a course.

What the N5 test actually looks like

N5 is 90 minutes of test time, in three timed sections:

SectionTime
Language Knowledge (Vocabulary)20 min
Language Knowledge (Grammar) and Reading40 min
Listening30 min

Scoring works differently from the section split. There are two scoring sections: Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar) and Reading, scored 0 to 120, and Listening, scored 0 to 60, for a total of 0 to 180.

The pass mark is 80 out of 180, but the total is not enough on its own. You must also clear a sectional minimum in each: 38 out of 120 on Language Knowledge and Reading, and 19 out of 60 on Listening. Miss either one and you fail regardless of your total. This is the rule that catches self-taught learners, who often build strong reading and neglect listening entirely. The official listening standard for N5 is following short, slowly spoken conversations about daily life and classroom situations, so practice with audio needs to be in your plan from early on, not bolted on in the last month.

If you are unsure whether N5 is the right level to sit at all, JLPT levels explained covers what each level assumes.

How long does N5 take?

Published estimates run from roughly 150 to 500 hours, and the spread is not sloppiness. The sources are counting different things.

The single biggest variable is whether you already read Chinese characters. The second is whether “hours” means class time or total time including homework and review.

A workable read: if you are starting from zero with no kanji background, the relevant range is the 250 to 500 hour end. At 30 to 45 minutes a day, that is somewhere between one and two years. Studying an hour a day roughly halves the top of that range. If a plan promises N5 in 30 days, it is counting something other than what these sources count.

A realistic study plan

Rough shape, assuming you start from zero and study most days:

  1. Weeks 1 to 3: kana only. Hiragana first, then katakana. No vocabulary study yet beyond the words that come attached to the characters. Finish by reading kana without pausing to decode.
  2. Months 1 to 6: vocabulary and grammar together. A few new words a day through spaced repetition, plus one textbook chapter every week or two. Vocabulary without grammar gives you a word list; grammar without vocabulary gives you empty patterns.
  3. Throughout: listening from day one. Even ten minutes of slow, simple audio. The sectional minimum makes this non-optional.
  4. Final 6 to 8 weeks: past papers and timing. Buy an official practice workbook and sit it under real time pressure. Most first-timers lose points to pacing, not knowledge.

The part that decides the outcome is not the plan. It is whether you show up on the days you do not feel like it, which is the entire argument for keeping daily sessions small enough that you actually do them.

Where an app fits, and where it does not

Spaced repetition is the right tool for the vocabulary and kanji half of N5, which is high-volume, low-complexity memorization on a schedule. It is the wrong tool for grammar, which needs explanation and worked examples, and it does nothing for listening unless the app includes audio practice.

So the honest division of labor for N5 is: an SRS app for words and kanji, a textbook or course for grammar, and graded audio for listening. If you want a comparison of the vocabulary apps specifically, including where Anki and Renshuu beat us, we wrote an honest one.

If the vocabulary half is the part you want handled, Moji covers it on iPhone: 746 N5-tagged words in a frequency-derived order, every entry with a curated example sentence and a free pitch accent contour, FSRS-6 scheduling with nothing to configure, free hiragana and katakana quiz decks, and a free placement test so you do not start below your actual level. The whole comprehension path is free, so finding out whether it suits you costs a download: Moji is on the App Store.

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