Japanese uses three interlocking scripts rather than a single alphabet:
Hiragana has 46 basic characters, each representing one mora (syllable).
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| あ (a) | い (i) | う (u) | え (e) | お (o) | |
| k | か (ka) | き (ki) | く (ku) | け (ke) | こ (ko) |
| s | さ (sa) | し (shi) | す (su) | せ (se) | そ (so) |
| t | た (ta) | ち (chi) | つ (tsu) | て (te) | と (to) |
| n | な (na) | に (ni) | ぬ (nu) | ね (ne) | の (no) |
| h | は (ha) | ひ (hi) | ふ (fu) | へ (he) | ほ (ho) |
| m | ま (ma) | み (mi) | む (mu) | め (me) | も (mo) |
| y | や (ya) | — | ゆ (yu) | — | よ (yo) |
| r | ら (ra) | り (ri) | る (ru) | れ (re) | ろ (ro) |
| w | わ (wa) | — | — | — | を (wo)* |
| n | ん (n) | ||||
*を is pronounced “o” when used as the object marker.
Katakana mirrors hiragana and also has 46 basic characters.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ア (a) | イ (i) | ウ (u) | エ (e) | オ (o) | |
| k | カ (ka) | キ (ki) | ク (ku) | ケ (ke) | コ (ko) |
| s | サ (sa) | シ (shi) | ス (su) | セ (se) | ソ (so) |
| t | タ (ta) | チ (chi) | ツ (tsu) | テ (te) | ト (to) |
| n | ナ (na) | ニ (ni) | ヌ (nu) | ネ (ne) | ノ (no) |
| h | ハ (ha) | ヒ (hi) | フ (fu) | ヘ (he) | ホ (ho) |
| m | マ (ma) | ミ (mi) | ム (mu) | メ (me) | モ (mo) |
| y | ヤ (ya) | — | ユ (yu) | — | ヨ (yo) |
| r | ラ (ra) | リ (ri) | ル (ru) | レ (re) | ロ (ro) |
| w | ワ (wa) | — | — | — | ヲ (wo)* |
| n | ン (n) | ||||
*ヲ is rare in modern usage, mainly in fixed expressions.
Kanji are logographic characters imported from Chinese. Each character conveys meaning and often multiple readings:
Kanji are used for nouns, verb/adjective stems, and key lexical items. Modern literacy requires knowledge of ~2,000 jōyō kanji.