Last checked: October 2026
For beginners, start with Kaishi 1.5k: a free deck of about 1,500 common words, each with word audio, an example sentence and sentence audio. When you finish it, move to Core 2k/6k for more vocabulary, and add a kanji deck if you want to learn the characters on their own. Learn hiragana and katakana before any of them (start with our free hiragana flashcards).
Pick one vocabulary deck and, if you want one, one kanji deck. Which ones depends on whether you want to pass the JLPT or read native material. If you are studying a different East Asian language, the Anki decks for Korean guide covers a similar frequency-based approach adapted for Hangul and the TOPIK exam.
Japanese asks a lot of memory. Everyday literacy means the jōyō kanji, the 2,136 characters on the Japanese government's list for general use, plus the words built from them.
Anki spaces your reviews out. Each time you remember a card, it waits longer before showing it again. By increasing the interval between reviews as the information becomes more stable, you spend less time on easy words and more time on difficult ones. For those starting out, finding the right pre-made decks is the fastest way to seed your SRS with high-frequency data.
There are two ways to learn kanji with Anki: on their own first, or as part of words. Each needs a different deck.
The writing-first approach, often associated with the Heisig method or "Remembering the Kanji" (RTK), treats kanji as standalone symbols. Instead of learning how to read a word, you learn the meaning of the character and how to write it using mnemonics. This method focuses on radicals, which are the smaller building blocks of a character. For example, the "water" radical (氵) appears in many kanji related to liquids, such as 海 (sea) and 泳 (swim).
The recognition-first approach learns kanji in the context of vocabulary. Instead of learning the character for "electricity" (電) in isolation, you learn the word "denki" (electricity) and see the character as part of that word. This gets you reading and listening sooner. Kaishi 1.5k and Core 2k/6k both work this way.
The risk with recognition-first is that you may recognize a word in a deck but struggle to read it in a book. To prevent this, you should combine your decks with immersion. If you find the technical side of Anki overwhelming, you might consider the best flashcard app for Japanese to simplify the interface.
Too many decks at once leaves you with more reviews than time. Choose one vocabulary deck and, at most, one kanji deck.
Kaishi 1.5k has about 1,500 words, picked from Core 2k, Core 10k and the Tango N5 and N4 books and sorted by frequency. Every card has word audio, an example sentence and sentence audio. Its makers built it because Core 2k had mistranslations and missing or unrelated pictures, and they fixed about 120 of the example sentences they took from the Core decks. It is free on GitHub and AnkiWeb and needs Anki 2.1.50 or later.
Core 2k/6k is the long-standing shared deck of the 2,000, then 6,000, most common words, with an example sentence for each. Its first section is often shared as "Core 2000 Step 01". It is bigger than Kaishi, so it takes you further, but expect some of the errors Kaishi's makers fixed. If you finish Kaishi first, suspend the Core cards for words you already know.
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) runs from N5 (easiest) to N1. Since 2010 it has not published word or kanji lists for any level, as its FAQ explains. The figures below are the old test's guidelines from the Japan Foundation and JEES (summarized on Wikipedia), mapped to the new levels that match them. Treat them as a rough guide.
Keep "new cards per day" low enough that your reviews stay manageable. For a sustainable pace, optimizing your Anki settings is necessary to avoid the review mountain.
Once a pre-made deck runs out of words you need, start sentence mining: making your own cards from content you read or watch, such as an anime, a novel or a news article. Each card then comes with a sentence you have already met in context.
If you collect your mined sentences in a spreadsheet, our CSV to Anki converter turns the file into an .apkg deck.
When mining sentences, follow the "i+1" rule. This means you should only create a card for a sentence where you know every single word except for one. If a sentence has three unknown words, it is too difficult and will lead to frustration. By focusing on i+1, you ensure that the context of the sentence provides enough information for you to deduce the meaning of the new word.
To speed up mining, use Yomitan (a browser extension) and AnkiConnect. Together they let you hover over a Japanese word in your browser and send it directly to Anki with one click, including the definition and the sentence it was found in. To make this workflow smoother, you should look into essential Anki add-ons that automate the formatting of your cards.
If you are using AI to help generate these sentences, be careful. Many learners use AI to create "fluff" sentences that sound unnatural. Instead, focus on using AI for actual learning by asking the AI to explain the nuance between two similar words rather than just generating a list of random sentences.
Daily reviews matter more than how many new cards you add. Skipped days pile up. Two starting plans, depending on your time:
Regardless of your pace, the rule is simple: reviews first, new cards second. If you are short on time, skip the new cards for the day, but never skip your reviews. For those using multiple devices, specific language learning settings can help sync your progress across mobile and desktop.
Related guides: Anki decks for Spanish, Anki decks for French and Anki decks for Chinese.
Making your own cards takes time once you outgrow pre-made decks. StudyCards AI turns PDFs, notes and reading material, like a textbook chapter, into flashcards that export to Anki. Check the cards before you study them. Unlike general language learning apps , it works from the material you are already studying.
Try StudyCards AI FreeIt depends on your goal. RTK is better for those who want to master kanji writing and recognition as a foundation. Core 2k is better for those who want to start reading and listening to Japanese immediately by learning words in context.
For most learners, 10 to 20 new cards per day is sustainable. Doing 50 or more often leads to a "review explosion" after a few weeks, where you have hundreds of reviews daily, leading to burnout.
No. Anki is a tool for memorization, not for learning grammar or listening comprehension. You must combine Anki with a textbook (like Genki) and immersion in native content to pass the JLPT.
Sentence mining is the process of creating your own flashcards from real-world content. Instead of using a pre-made list, you find a sentence in a book or show, identify one unknown word (i+1), and create a card for it.
Yes. While some decks use Romaji, it is a crutch that slows down your progress. You should spend one to two weeks mastering the Kana scripts before starting a vocabulary deck.
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