Japanese is one of the slowest languages for English speakers. The US Foreign Service Institute lists it in Category IV: 88 weeks (2200 class hours) to professional speaking and listening, against 30 weeks for Spanish. At an hour a day, those class hours alone would take about six years. Everyday reading comes sooner, but kanji make it a long project.
- FSI group
- Category IV, with Korean, Arabic and Chinese
- FSI time
- 88 weeks (2200 class hours)
- Compared with
- Spanish 30 weeks, German approximately 36
- Writing systems
- Hiragana, katakana and kanji
- Everyday kanji list
- 2,136 characters (jōyō kanji, 2010)
- JLPT levels
- N5 (easiest) to N1
How long does Japanese take compared with Spanish or German?
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) trains US diplomats full-time and publishes how long its students usually need to reach a professional level of speaking and listening (3 on the ILR scale). Its typical week is 23 hours in class and 17 hours of self-study.
| Language | FSI category | Time published by FSI |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | I | 30 weeks |
| German | II | Approximately 36 weeks (828 class hours) |
| Russian | III | Approximately 44 weeks (1,012 class hours) |
| Japanese | IV | 88 weeks (2200 class hours) |
That is nearly three times as many weeks as Spanish. Add FSI's 17 hours a week of self-study over 88 weeks and the total is roughly 3,700 hours. Here is what the published 2,200 class hours mean for a learner studying on their own:
| Study time | 2,200 hours takes | About 3,700 hours (with self-study) takes |
|---|---|---|
| 30 minutes a day | About 12 years | About 20 years |
| 1 hour a day | About 6 years | About 10 years |
| 2 hours a day | About 3 years | About 5 years |
Those numbers are for a professional standard, and FSI says the real time varies with natural ability, earlier language learning and time in class. Most learners aim lower and get there far sooner: reading simple stories, travelling, following a favourite show with subtitles. Progress at the start is steady and visible; it is the distance to full fluency that is long.
Why does Japanese take so long for English speakers?
Three writing systems
Japanese mixes two syllable scripts, hiragana and katakana, with kanji (characters borrowed from Chinese). Even the easiest level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT N5) expects you to read sentences written in hiragana, katakana and basic kanji. The government's list of kanji for everyday writing, the jōyō kanji set in November 2010, has 2,136 characters.
One character, several readings
Most kanji have more than one pronunciation. 日 (day, sun) is read differently in each of these words:
日本
nihon
Japan
日曜日
nichiyōbi
Sunday
The same character read two ways in one word.
三日
mikka
three days, the third of the month
No spaces, verb last
Ordinary Japanese is written without spaces between words, the verb comes at the end of the sentence, and small particles such as は, を and に mark what each word is doing. Very few words look like English ones, apart from loanwords in katakana.
What is easier than you'd expect
- Verbs don't change for the person. たべます means I eat, you eat or she eats.
- No articles and no grammatical gender, so there is no der/die/das to memorise.
- Katakana loanwords give you free vocabulary once you can read them: バナナ (banana), ジュース (juice).
- Kana are phonetic. Each hiragana or katakana stands for one sound unit, so once you can read them you can pronounce anything written in kana.
What can you read at each stage?
The JLPT describes its five levels in terms of what you can read and understand. Contos labels its Japanese stories on the CEFR scale (A1–B2) instead, and we don't map the two one to one, but the JLPT descriptions are a useful picture of the road.
| JLPT level | Reading, as the JLPT describes it (summarised) |
|---|---|
| N5 | Typical expressions and sentences in hiragana, katakana and basic kanji |
| N4 | Passages on familiar daily topics in basic vocabulary and kanji |
| N3 | Everyday written material, and newspaper headlines |
| N2 | Clearly written newspaper and magazine articles on many topics |
| N1 | Logically complex and abstract writing, such as editorials and critiques |
Texts also get longer as you go up. In the Contos library (September 2026 export), measured in Spanish and German because word counts don't transfer to Japanese, a B2 chapter is more than twice as long as an A1 chapter: 392 against 176 words in Spanish, 356 against 166 in German. Reading stamina is part of every step.
What does a reading-first plan for Japanese look like?
- Learn hiragana, then katakana. Nothing else in Japanese is readable without them.
- Start with spaced beginner text. Contos writes its Japanese stories with a space between words, so you can see where each word ends and tap it for its meaning. Compare the two lines below.
- Read one short A1 chapter a day, once for the story and once slowly. Tap only what stops you.
- Learn kanji through words you have read, not from a list of 2,136. A kanji you met in a story has a meaning and a sound attached.
- Review saved words daily as flashcards, then reread yesterday's chapter.
- Add listening and speaking elsewhere. Contos is for reading; pair it with audio and conversation practice.
今日は土曜日です。
kyō wa doyōbi desu.
Today is Saturday.
How it is normally written: kanji, no spaces.
きょう は どようび です。
kyō wa doyōbi desu.
Today is Saturday.
Beginner style: hiragana, a space after every word.
Our measurement of Spanish A1 stories found that the 100 most frequent word forms make up about 63% of the text. We haven't measured Japanese the same way, but the lesson carries over: a small core of words does most of the work at the start, and reading is how you meet it again and again.
Start an A1 Japanese story in your browser. The first two chapters of every series are free.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
Can you learn Japanese in a year?
You can learn a lot in a year. An hour a day gives you 365 hours, about a sixth of FSI's 2,200 class hours: enough to read hiragana and katakana, a core of everyday words and simple stories, but not professional fluency.
Is Japanese harder than Korean?
The FSI rates them the same: Category IV, 88 weeks. Korean's alphabet, Hangul, has 24 letters, so Korean is quicker to start reading than Japanese with its kanji. See our guide to learning Korean by reading.
How many kanji do I need to know?
The jōyō list sets 2,136 kanji as the guide for everyday writing, but you don't need them all to start reading. JLPT N5 asks only for basic kanji alongside hiragana and katakana. Beginner stories in kana with a few kanji let you read from week one.
Should I learn hiragana before anything else?
Yes. Hiragana spells every sound in Japanese and carries grammar endings and particles, so it appears in almost every sentence. Katakana comes next, for loanwords and names. Then kanji, gradually, through words you meet.
Does Contos teach Japanese from zero?
Contos is a reading app. Its A1 Japanese stories are written for beginners, with spaces between words and tap-to-translate, but you should know hiragana and katakana before you start. Chapters 1–2 of every series are free.