Learning Japanese with the Anki app: kana, kanji, JLPT on the iPhone

Japanese is the language where Anki goes from "practical" to "hardly possible without it." You learn three writing systems, kanji with multiple readings, and words that are written the same way but mean something different depending on pitch. At the same time, there is hardly any language with so many ready-made decks and so many people online explaining that you are doing everything wrong.

Here is what is documented, which decks exist, and how to study them with checkst on the iPhone.

What you have to learn

• Hiragana: 46 basic characters, for particles, grammatical endings and words without a usual kanji spelling.
• Katakana: likewise 46 basic characters, typically used for loanwords.
• Kanji: The official Jōyō list contains 2,136 characters, and it is not even complete; proper names and specialist vocabulary go beyond it.

And then pitch accent. The Japan Foundation explains: the same kana reading with a different accent pattern is normal in Japanese. はし can mean chopsticks or bridge.

The JLPT in brief

Five levels, N5 is the easiest, N1 the hardest. The test covers language knowledge, reading and listening, all multiple choice. Speaking and free writing do not appear. This matters: if you only study for the JLPT, cards in the Japanese-to-German direction go a long way. If you want to speak, they do not.

The JLPT has not published official word and kanji lists since 2010. As a guide, the JLEA gives:

In Germany, the JLPT takes place in December 2026 according to the Japanese Cultural Institute in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Berlin and Hamburg. Berlin also had a date on July 5, 2026.

Which decks?

• Kaishi 1.5k: beginner deck with about 1,500 words, example sentences, word and sentence audio, and optional pitch accent. A linked German translation exists.
• Core 2k/6k: several variants, one of them with 5,999 notes. A variant with pitch-accent graphics warns itself about possible errors.
• Tango N5–N1: sentence cards from the Tango books. TheMoeWay now lists the older Tango decks for N5 and N4 as replaced by Kaishi.
• RTK and WaniKani: Remembering the Kanji is a book method that teaches form and meaning first and moves readings to another volume. WaniKani is its own web app with SRS, not an Anki deck.

Which kanji path is better is not documented. Anyone who, like Conning in the Kanji Learner’s Course, argues for anchoring meaning and reading through concrete example words fits well with flashcards.

Your workflow with checkst

1. Kana first, self-made. 46 plus 46 characters are quick to create as cards. Make them in both directions.

2. Import Kaishi. Download the .apkg and open it in checkst. Study the word, not the single kanji: word, reading and meaning on one card. checkst understands the furigana filter from Anki templates, so the readings appear above the kanji as in Anki.

3. Audio from the deck. Kaishi comes with audio, and checkst plays it. For your own cards checkst has speech output, with the language adjustable per field. For pitch accent, however, we would rely on checked audio from the deck.

4. Sentence mining. Refold and Tatsumoto recommend sentences from what you are reading or watching anyway, with ideally only one unknown element per card. Yomitan creates such cards via AnkiConnect in Anki on the desktop. checkst is not connected to it. So you mine in Anki and import the deck, or you create cards directly in checkst. checkst's text recognition is designed for German and English; it does not support Japanese text from manga screenshots.

5. Keep reviews under control. Refold explicitly warns against mining too much and then sinking into a backlog. Set the daily limit for new cards in checkst conservatively. FSRS plans the repetitions; the default according to the Anki manual is 90 percent target retention, above 97 percent it becomes expensive. And: "Again" when you did not know the reading, not "Hard."

Example cards

The pitch card only works properly with audio. Listen to it instead of just reading "high–low."

What the research says

In 2022, Kim and Webb summarized 48 experiments with 3,411 participants in a meta-analysis: distributed practice has a medium to large effect on second-language learning. There is only one direct study on kanji with Anki, in mini format: six Croatian beginners, combined with stories and lessons. Which deck works best for German speakers has not been tested in a controlled way by anyone.

Limitations

• No AnkiConnect connection. Yomitan, browser mining and add-ons run in Anki, not in checkst.
• No stylus writing. checkst quizzes kanji, it does not correct stroke order.
• Apple only. iPhone and iPad, no Android, no web app.