# Sources for the N5, N4 and N3 kanji cards

[Version française](KANJI-SOURCES.md)

10 October 2026 edition: 612 unique kanji, comprising 79 N5 kanji, 166 new N4 kanji and 367 new N3 kanji. Including previous levels gives 245 N4 cards and 612 N3 cards.

These lists are approximate. The JLPT does not publish an exhaustive official kanji list by level; see the [official FAQ](https://www.jlpt.jp/e/faq/index.html).

## Kanji dictionary

French meanings, on/kun readings and stroke counts come from KANJIDIC2, copyright Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (EDRDG), Jim Breen and contributors. English meanings added on 12 October 2026 use the KANJIDIC2 meanings distributed by [David Luz Gouveia's kanji-data](https://github.com/davidluzgouveia/kanji-data). WaniKani content from that dataset is not used.

[KANJIDIC2 documentation](https://www.edrdg.org/wiki/KANJIDIC_Project.html), [dictionary download](https://www.edrdg.org/kanjidic/kanjidic2.xml.gz), [CC BY-SA 4.0 licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) and [EDRDG attribution conditions](https://www.edrdg.org/edrdg/licence.html). A copy of the EDRDG notice is included in [EDRDG-LICENCE.html](EDRDG-LICENCE.html).

## Example words

Spellings and readings were checked against [JMdict](https://www.edrdg.org/wiki/JMdict-EDICT_Dictionary_Project.html), copyright EDRDG and contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 for its Japanese/English components.

Short French example translations were written and reviewed for this site; they are not a raw extraction of JMdict's French glosses. French JMdict data have separate rights holders, including contributors to Jean-Marc Desperrier's project and JMdict Internationalization. Their licence is not equated here with that of the Japanese/English components. They served as a preparation reference.

English explanations and example translations are static draft adaptations from the site's French content, produced with a French–English OPUS-MT model alongside existing editorial translations. The model is not needed by visitors and no translation API is called by the site.

## Level classification

Levels use the factual `jlpt_new` field in [kanji-data](https://github.com/davidluzgouveia/kanji-data), whose stated source is [Jonathan Waller / Tanos](https://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/). The classification is unofficial.

## Adaptations and redistribution

Adaptations include N5/N4/N3 selection, classification without duplicates, preservation of the twenty historical card identifiers, stable Unicode-based identifiers, selected French meanings, pedagogical examples and short translations. Historical cards retain their original French texts and exercises; four are classified as N4 under the selected reference.

The derived `kanji.json` dataset is distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0 for the covered data and adaptations, with the attribution above. This data licence does not impose a licence on the site's PHP code.

When redistributing, retain this notice, attribution and licence links, and state your modifications. Follow dictionary updates and the recommendation to refresh the data at least monthly, while always retaining identifiers of cards already used.