Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji? A Simple Guide for Parents

When parents start teaching their child Japanese, the first question is usually: “Wait, why are there three alphabets?” Here's the short, kid-friendly answer, and a clear order to teach them in.

The three writing systems

One sentence often mixes all three. That sounds hard, but kids don't need everything at once.

Which one should my child learn first?

Start with hiragana. It's what Japanese children learn first, picture books for little ones are written in it, and every sound in Japanese can be written with it.

Then katakana. It has the same sounds as hiragana, just different shapes. Many katakana words sound like English, which makes it surprisingly fun (more on that in our katakana guide).

Then a few kanji, slowly. Start with simple picture-like ones: 日 (sun), 山 (mountain), 川 (river), 木 (tree), 人 (person).

How hiragana is organized

The chart is read in rows of five: あ い う え お (a, i, u, e, o), then か き く け こ (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko), and so on. Once your child knows the five vowels, each new row is just a consonant + those same vowels.

Teach one row per week and you'll cover all 46 hiragana in about 10 weeks, with plenty of time for games.

Make it fun

• Name hunt: Write your child's name in hiragana or katakana and stick it on their door.
• Snack labels: Japanese snacks at the grocery store are full of hiragana and katakana. Can they spot あ?
• Trace, then draw: After tracing a letter, draw something that starts with it: ねこ (neko, cat) for ね.

From our shop

Hiragana Tracing Workbook

All 46 hiragana with a big letter, sound guide, dotted tracing rows and a first word on every page. Ages 4–9.

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From our shop

Katakana Tracing Workbook

The perfect next step: all 46 katakana with words kids already know, like cake, robot and ice cream.

See it on Etsy →