http://www.listsofbests.com/list/13898 basic alphabet: hiragana and katakana (46 letters each) joyo kanji: 1945 characters (what constitutes being literate) [grade 1 (80), grade 2 (160), grade 3 (200), grade 4 (200), grade 5 (185), grade 6 (181), general use (939)] once you learn all this, then you can move on to kanji reserved for people's names(!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:29:58 GMT en-us 0 50 9 0 0 http://www.43things.com/things/view/327290 <div id="position">1</div><div id="num-active-people">49</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/142214 <div id="position">2</div><div id="num-active-people">67</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/337512 <div id="position">3</div><div id="num-active-people">18</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/984014 <div id="position">4</div><div id="num-active-people">2</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/984015 <div id="position">5</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/984017 <div id="position">6</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/984019 <div id="position">7</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/984021 <div id="position">8</div> http://www.43things.com/things/view/1590417 <div id="position">9</div>