Learn by Playing! Recommended Games with a Kanji Theme
There are adults who aren’t good with kanji, or who feel like they know them but can’t quite recall them, right?
Once you develop even a slight aversion, the hurdle gets higher, so I’d love for people to learn in a fun way.
How about turning it into a game to learn kanji—getting hands-on with kanji while you play?
We introduce various kanji games, from free apps to board and card games.
Adults can play too, so why not try them with your children?
- [Playable from lower grades] Japanese language games and activities
- [Interesting] Summary of Kanji Reading Quiz Questions
- [For Elementary School Students] Country Names in Kanji Quiz. A quick, fun quiz
- [For Elementary School Students] Cipher Quiz: Fun Puzzle Riddles
- [Elementary School] Let's Learn Kanji with Songs! The Fun Kanji Song
- [Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
- Quiz for junior high school students
- [Brain Training] Difficult Riddles That Even Adults Struggle With
- [Get Friendly with Games] Math Games, Apps, and Activities
- Recommended card game. Easy! Fun! Adults get hooked too!
- [Interesting] A collection of brain teaser quiz questions. Let's train your brain!
- Recommended for upper elementary grades! Exciting indoor recreation and games
- [Interesting] Collection of Matchstick Quiz Problems
[Learn by Playing!] Recommended Games with a Kanji Theme (11–20)
Group Kanji Relay Competition
Here’s a recommended group competition Kanji Relay for classroom group activities! It’s great for reviewing kanji you’ve learned.
First, make groups of about three to four students and give each group a sheet with a grid.
Students take turns writing kanji they’ve studied, and the simple rule is to compete to see how many they can write within the time limit.
The key is to divide the groups in a way that avoids big gaps between teams.
Since all you need is paper, why not try adding this activity between lessons?
Doraemon: Parent and Child Kanji Play
How about studying kanji together with everyone’s favorite, Doraemon? Let me introduce the educational app “Doraemon: Parent and Child Kanji Play”! You can have fun tackling the kanji taught from first to third grade in elementary school together with Nobita.
It’s packed with features like Practice Mode, where you trace guides to learn kanji, and Battle Mode, where you can practice reading and writing words and compounds.
Answer lots of questions to earn Secret Gadget stickers and boost your motivation! Give it a try!
The Kanji Mansion and the Ghosts
Why not learn kanji while playing the Nintendo 3DS downloadable software “The Kanji Mansion and the Ghosts”? Cute ghosts appear in mini-games that help you memorize kanji in a fun, game-like way—such as “Scribble Ghost,” where you defeat ghosts by writing the prompted kanji multiple times, and “Hide-and-Seek Ghost,” where you write the kanji hidden in a mirror to beat them.
It’s recommended for children who feel intimidated by conventional kanji drills.
The content covers grades 1 through 6, so you can choose according to your learning level, which is a nice plus.
Newspaper kanji search
It’s a game where you search for characters using a newspaper.
As long as you have a newspaper and a pen, anyone can play easily.
The rules are very simple: you pick a single kanji character and then look for the same character in the newspaper.
One of the appealing points is that, as you repeat the game on a single sheet, the newspaper gradually becomes colorful.
If you also think about how the kanji you find is being used in context, you’ll likely gain a deeper understanding of the character.
Scattered Kanji Puzzle
“Scattered Kanji Puzzle” is a game where you assemble broken-up kanji to complete a two-character compound word.
In the video, the puzzles are made using kanji learned in the first grade of elementary school.
Once they’re taken apart, even simple kanji lose their original shape, so it can be difficult for adults without hints.
It’s recommended for children who want to learn kanji from a different perspective and enjoy it like a game, rather than memorizing them in the usual way.
It also works as brain training, so it’s a game that can be recommended for all ages.
Kanji and Words You Can Remember with Puns
Let me introduce a fun kanji drill that helps you learn through puns: “Learn Kanji and Words with Puns”! Puns are actually an intellectual form of wordplay.
Coming up with puns can even boost your vocabulary! Their catchy rhythm makes them easy to remember.
Even difficult kanji become easier to memorize and recall when learned through puns.
The book is packed with example sentences using compound words and idioms, and it also teaches proper stroke order thoroughly.
It’s a perfect book to try for children who struggle with writing kanji.
Kanji ateji composition
If you’re looking for a quick and easy kanji-learning game, I recommend “Kanji-Only Composition.” You have players write a sentence based on a theme, using as many kanji as possible.
It ends up looking a bit like Chinese, which is visually fun! Since making everything kanji can be hard, hiragana and katakana are fine too.
You can compete on how many kanji you use, read each other’s sentences with friends, and showcase the funniest lines to make it even more exciting.
Give it a try!
101 Kanji Karuta
Why not incorporate “101 Kanji Karuta,” which lets you learn from the origins of kanji, into your child’s kanji studies? It’s said that most kanji are built from 101 basic characters, and by putting pictures, pictographs, and kanji on cards, even children who struggle with kanji will find it engaging! There are reading cards with illustrations and catchy phrases, and grabbing cards with pictographs and kanji, so kids can master the basics while playing karuta.
It’s fun for everyone from young children to adults, so give it a try!
Cut-out Kanji Quiz
This is a kanji quiz that uses your computer’s screenshot function.
You display a kanji in large size on the screen, take a screenshot, and save only a portion of the image to create a question.
You look at just part of a kanji and think about which kanji it comes from and which part it is.
Depending on how it’s cropped, the answer may be unclear, so the person creating the questions also needs some skill.
It’s fun as a quiz even when there’s only one correct answer, but if you also consider whether the cropped part appears in other kanji, it could deepen your understanding of kanji.
Fish-Fish Matching
There are many kanji characters with the fish radical in Japan.
Because there are so many types and some are confusing, they can be hard to memorize.
That’s where “Toto Awase” comes in to help you learn fish-radical kanji.
Each fish is completed by combining two cards, and you can use this feature to enjoy a variety of games like Concentration (Memory) or Old Maid.
The cards also include mnemonic phrases for the kanji, making it possible to learn many fish-radical characters through games and jokes.