# iKanji - Learn Japanese Kanji — Read & Write JLPT & Jōyō Kanji

> Learn and practice Japanese kanji with spaced repetition and various tests. (iPhone/iPad app by ThinkMac Software.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikanji-learn-japanese-kanji/id311920885 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [ThinkMac Software](https://appshunter.io/developer/288805276)
- Category: Education, Travel
- Price: $4.99 with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 142 App Store ratings · 150 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 9.0 · 65 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2009-04-18
- Data updated: 2026-08-13
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikanji-learn-japanese-kanji/id311920885/reviews.md

## What is iKanji?

iKanji touch is a powerful kanji study and training tool covering over 2,000 JLPT and school grade jouyou kanji.

- Kanji are grouped by grade and JLPT and subdivided into sets of 20 for easy practice.
- Includes 2010 jouyou kanji.
- Reference ‘cards’ for each kanji with readings, stroke count, radical etc.
- Vocabulary browser with JLPT based sets
- Hear vocabulary pronounced using the Japanese text-to-speech facility
- List of example compounds for each kanji.
- Leitner System based spaced repetition Teach Me mode.
- Reading test to quiz you on kanji readings (onyomi and kunyomi).
- Meaning test to practice your ability to recognise the English meaning of a given kanji.
- Compound test to complete words by filling in the missing kanji.
- Stroke order test to practice writing kanji (not available for all kanji yet).
- Search for kanji by readings, stroke count, meaning or radical.
- Ability to create multiple practice sets and track wrongly answered kanji.
- Extras store where you can purchase additional features to tailor iKanji touch to your needs

Please note all kanji readings (onyomi and kunyomi) are in hiragana and katakana only. Romaji is not used in this application.

*JLPT sets are based on kanji usually taught at these levels and are not based on official listings for current tests.

## Key features

- JLPT & Jōyō Kanji coverage
- Spaced repetition (Leitner System)
- Reading, Meaning, and Compound tests
- Vocabulary browser
- Kanji search by reading, stroke count, meaning, radical
- Stroke order practice

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: $4.99.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kanji Drawing Practice | $0.99 | one-time |
| Kana Chart | $0.99 | one-time |
| Dark Mode | $0.99 | one-time |


## Chart rankings

- #174 in Top Paid · Education (US App Store)

## What do users think of iKanji?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Well-organized interface with clear navigation
- 📚 Comprehensive kanji database (2400+ characters)
- 🎯 Effective spaced repetition learning system
- 📊 Multiple testing modes (meaning, readings, stroke order, compounds)
- 🎨 Beautiful, polished design and aesthetics
- 🏆 Flexible study organization by JLPT/grade levels
- ✍️ Stroke order animation and visualization
- 🔍 Powerful search functionality
- ⚙️ Highly customizable practice sets
- 🎓 Excellent for JLPT exam preparation
- 🦊 Engaging mascot and reward system
- 💪 Proven long-term learning effectiveness

**Cons**

- 🐛 Stroke order animation accelerates (becomes too fast)
- 🐛 Stroke recognition overly sensitive/finicky
- 🔊 Pronunciation/voice feature broken or missing
- 📝 Tracing mode too easy (doesn't test true memorization)
- ❌ Multiple choice testing lacks difficulty
- ⚠️ Inconsistent kanji data (missing readings)
- 🚫 No vocabulary quiz/test feature
- 🔄 Spaced repetition system has bugs
- ⏱️ App crashes frequently (especially older versions)
- 🔗 No grammar or listening features
- 💰 Expensive for kanji-only app
- 📱 Outdated and no longer actively supported

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Stroke order animation speeds up progressively
- Stroke recognition too strict (rejects correct strokes)
- Voice/pronunciation feature no longer works
- Kanji to study section doesn't show all kanji until later in day
- App crashes during practice mode
- Memory leaks causing instability
- Inconsistent kanji test results (passes then fails same kanji)
- Some kanji missing stroke order diagrams
- Incorrect stroke order in higher levels (N1)
- Voice mispronounces readings with periods
- Writing test too sensitive to pixel-perfect accuracy
- Search results include partial word matches incorrectly

**Most requested features**

- Free-form kanji drawing from memory (not just tracing)
- Vocabulary quiz/test mode
- Mixed test combining all kanji aspects
- Progress bar/counter for study sets
- Multiple custom practice lists
- Kanji grouping by radical
- Text entry option for readings (not just multiple choice)
- Show correct stroke order after mistakes
- Better example sentences and word compounds
- Example sentences accessible during teach mode
- Grammar app companion
- Native speaker audio pronunciation
- Export data to standard iOS share sheet
- Ability to mark kanji as passed/needs review manually
- Faster stroke order animations with speed control
- Japanese keyboard search support
- Darker background for better contrast
- Tap-through navigation in example compounds

## Recent user reviews (10 of 150)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikanji-learn-japanese-kanji/id311920885/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Please update it👌🏼

*2025-10-13, version 2.2.3*

The app is great.Please add more characters

### 3/5 — Needs update

*2023-05-08*

App needs to be updated. The speak feature to hear the pronunciation of kanji no longer works.

### 4/5 — Great tool

*2022-09-24*

It helps me with my JLPT prep very well, but it feels strange that there is no vocabulary test/quiz like there is for the kanjis.

### 2/5 — Does not have pronounciation

*2022-05-16*

I love this app. But I wish it had the option of listening to how to pronounce the Kanji as well as the words / sentences that Kanji is used for. Because it does not have this VERY important feature I find it lacking.

### 5/5 — Works as advertised

*2022-03-26, version 2.2.3*

I finished going through literally every kanji the app has to offer (about 2400 of the most common ones) about 3 days ago. Took about 1 year and 3 months of constantly, every day learning 5-12 kanji a day (as I kept getting further ahead I kept increasing daily new kanji) and reviewing already seen kanji using the app’s spaced repetition system. I may have my issues with the app that are more on the technical side, but I have to say this app definitely accomplishes what it advertises. Now I definitely feel a lot more confident when reading. Here are some of the things I did which helped me get learn using this app….While this app worked, I did not leave the teaching alone to it…. 1. Disable writing in the settings of the app. The stroke order may be correct in earlier levels (N5-N2)….when you get to N1 and highschool and 2010 Jouyou most of the kanji have the wrong stroke order. 2. The app’s spaced repetition is not enough. Every time before you go through using the app’s spaced rep system review the first 2 groups in the Kanji To Study / All trained kanji section. I suggest that while reviewing you write the kanji either in the air or on a surface with your finger…You might seem crazy to other people but it does help a lot 3. Buy a Japanese Character Writing Practice Book (you can type it in just like that on Amazon) and get the Anki app (flash cards app). Every time you go through new kanji, write it in anki (they have a windows and mac app as well (front of the card is the meaning and all pronunciations, back is the picture of the kanji…which you can get from jisho.org)…..in groups of 100 kanji, put in tags/folders based off of the level of the iKanji app as well as a group that encompasses all kanji you have added so far (a global group). Every time you go through a brand new kanji for that day, write it through a vertical line of the practice book (basically writing the kanji 20 times) to hopefully get it in your short term memory. Then once you go through all new kanji in the ikanji app, practice 20-50 kanji (I recommend 50) in Anki writing in the practice book. (Using the global group for review) 4. Space yourself out appropriately. Don’t assume you have to review all the kanji the app is telling you to review for that day…I made that mistake and basically by the time I got to the last groups I would be reviewing kanji for basically 6-8 hours every day…..and thats not counting my reading light novels time or watching raw japanese content for listening practice. Space yourself out, with something you’re comfortable with 5. When reviewing using the app’s spaced rep system, be sure to go through each one of the groups and not through the kanji to study section as there is a bug with the kanji to study section where it does not show you all kanji you have yet to review for that day until later in the day…. Also…there is a nice easter egg if you continuously tap on the fox on the top right of the app, it can get mad at you lol Anyways, these steps I mentioned are what worked for me….not going to necesarilly work for everyone else….The app is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you can get around the technical issues (specially because this app is no longer supported by the dev), this is an awesome app.

### 5/5 — Keeping my motivation to learn

*2021-05-03*

I'm really enjoying learning kanji with this app. It's my everyday habit and I can feel my progress when I can read more and more complicated kanji.

### 5/5 — Great design / Bad animation

*2020-10-20, version 2.2.3*

Probably the best kanji app to keep from getting bored that I’ve ever seen.  However, the stroke order animation speeds up every time you move to the next kanji.  5 or 6 kanji in the animated stroke order is flashing so quickly that nothing can be learned from it.  The old way of simply putting a picture with numbers beside each stroke would have been better.  IOS 14.

### 5/5 — Small issues but one of my favorite apps (I’ve bought a lot)

*2020-09-07*

I found this app incredibly useful. My preferred method is to go through the pre-made sets of 20 each week, writing them out while I have the voice speak (at first I found it annoying that it also reads the vocal examples, but this is now my favorite part as I learn new words). I write the kanji in the app, then use a whiteboard, then make a flash card. I go back later add three kanji a day to the tested kanji. The kanji testing system is brilliant.

The only issues I’ve found so far is that the voice trips up any time there is a . in a kunyomi reading. It repeatedly pronounces the next syllable incorrectly. The other is that, despite testing the kanji for ‘one’, the app says I haven’t, but then will go back later and say that I have. Small thing that may just be a glitch on my end.

I bought this in a bundle pack with iKana and iKana Nōto. I love all three apps (I used iKana to tutor). I used iKana Nōto a lot more before I made the in-app writing purchase in this one, which may have been a waste of money but I don’t regret it. Turning your device on its side will give you more writing room which took me longer to figure out then it should have. 

Overall, highly recommend and I wish they had a grammar app too. Don’t buy iKana Nōto if you plan on making the in-app writing purchase.

### 5/5 — Quite possibly the best, but still room for improvement

*2020-06-14*

This app is so clear, clean, and stable, and the ability to tackle kanji by school grade level or JLPT level is wonderful. I’ve been using this app for months, and it’s proven to be a fun way to make progress in the never-ending study of kanji. That said, I see three areas for improvement, which I wouldn’t mind paying a decent amount of money for as add-ons to this app: 

1) There is a bug where, as you progress through a set of kanji, the animation that demonstrates the stroke order and direction accelerates with each subsequent kanji character. This means that as you get toward the end of a set, a 15-stroke kanji’s animation is completed, start to finish, in less than one second. A blink of an eye, really. This is frustrating because the human eye simply can’t catch the order of so many strokes in a fraction of a second, and it should be a simple fix. (Note: This is not an added feature that I would pay for: The developer should fix this already, as it’s been this way for months.)  

2) All of the on- and kun-yomi quizzes are multiple choice, which is kind of easy. It would be nice to see a text entry option to further challenge learners. 

3) The final improvement, and the one I’d pay the most money for, is a free-form kanji drawing/writing option embedded in the “teach me these kanji” sets. Currently, the learner is given a “traceable,” gray-silhouette of the kanji to demonstrate stroke order and direction. This means that even though the learner is tasked with writing the kanji, they can already see the kanji and merely need to trace it, which is pretty weak and no demonstration of deeper learning or mastery in writing. I’d *love* a paid option to swap that out for just a big, blank box where I must draw the kanji from memory with no tracing or silhouette, as if I had to write the kanji on a blank piece of paper. Grading a handwritten kanji character for stroke order, stroke direction, accuracy, and legibility would be a challenge, but many apps already offer such an essential feature for learning hiragana and katakana. Moreover, years ago I had an app that did this for kanji character writing exceptionally well, but developer support for that app waned, and the app was eventually pulled. 

All in all, I love this app and have been using it daily for about four months now, and my kanji proficiency is almost back to where it was when I had lived in Japan many years ago, but I hope the developer reads this to continue improving this app.

### 5/5 — Finding this is good

*2020-03-04*

This is a good app for learning Kanji - I speak as someone who is perhaps a high beginner for Japanese language and writing. Kanji is intimidating, especially at first. This app is very well organized. The test based learning is very helpful and gets easier as you gradually go. Don’t expect to do this overnight...

## Frequently asked questions about iKanji

### What does iKanji - Learn Japanese Kanji do?

This app is a comprehensive tool designed to help users learn and practice Japanese kanji. It covers over 2,000 JLPT and Jōyō kanji, offering various study modes and tests to reinforce learning. Users can explore kanji readings, meanings, stroke order, and example compounds.

### What are the key features for learning kanji?

Key features include kanji grouped by grade and JLPT level, reference cards with detailed information, a vocabulary browser, and a Teach Me mode utilizing the Leitner System for spaced repetition. It also offers reading, meaning, compound, and stroke order tests to assess comprehension and writing skills.

### How is the app monetized?

The application is free to download and use, but it offers an extras store where users can purchase additional features to enhance their learning experience. This allows users to tailor the app to their specific needs and preferences.

### What is the target audience for this app?

This app is designed for anyone learning the Japanese language, particularly those aiming to pass JLPT exams or improve their overall kanji knowledge. It is suitable for beginners to advanced learners who need a structured approach to kanji study.

### Can I practice writing kanji with this app?

Yes, the app includes a stroke order test that allows users to practice writing kanji. While this feature is not yet available for all kanji, it provides an interactive way to learn the correct stroke sequences.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.2.3 — 2018-10-18

- New dark mode available as in-app purchase from the Extras store.
- Bug fixes and improvements.

### 2.2.2 — 2018-07-01

- Fixes a bug when searching for kanji where the flash card display would get stuck
- Fixes a layout problem with the compound test on smaller screen devices
- Improved menu appearance
- Improved text display when browsing kanji groupings on larger screen devices
- Crash reporting now opt-in
- Some other minor fixes.

### 2.2.1 — 2018-03-23

- Fixes some minor bugs that could causes crashes under rare circumstances.

### 2.2 — 2018-03-13

- Refreshed design
- Supports iPhone X
- Improved stability
- Restores Dropbox backup capability
- Now supports iPad split-screen multitasking
- Supports keyboard shortcuts on iPad for kanji and vocab browsing.
- Adds missing kunyomi readings for the kanji "為"
- Fixes a stroke order bugs in "淡" and "青"
- Fixes a bug with the reading test with kanji that don't contain onyomi readings.
- Fixes a bug where kanji not yet due testing could show in the kanji to test screen.

### 2.1.2 — 2016-10-10

- Fixes an issue with in app purchase
- Some minor tweaks and improvements

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## More apps by ThinkMac Software

- [iKana - Hiragana and Katakana](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikana-hiragana-and-katakana/id288805273)
- [iKana Nōto - Kana Notepad](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikana-noto-kana-notepad/id449916517)
- [WordLine - Letters Game](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wordline-letters-game/id6768048954)

All apps by ThinkMac Software: https://appshunter.io/developer/288805276

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-13.*