Why Use Hiragana Instead of Kanji? The Real Rules

Short answer: Japanese writers use hiragana instead of kanji for four main reasons. Grammar is always written in hiragana. Words whose kanji meaning has faded (こと, ていく, ありがとう) are usually written in kana. Words whose kanji is not on the official jōyō list are often written in kana. And the writer may choose kana for the reader, for example children. Everywhere else, normal adult Japanese writes the core of a word in kanji.

This guide explains each reason with examples taken from the Japanese government’s own writing guide, 公用文作成の考え方 (“Approach to writing official documents”, Council for Cultural Affairs, January 2022, PDF on bunka.go.jp), and the jōyō kanji table of 2010. If you want to know why kanji exist at all, read does kanji make Japanese harder to read first; this post is about the choice word by word.

The default: kanji and hiragana mixed

Standard written Japanese is what the government guide calls 漢字平仮名交じり文, “text mixing kanji and hiragana”. Each script has a job:

Script	Main job	Example
Kanji	The core of most nouns, verbs and adjectives	学校, 食べる, 高い
Hiragana	Grammar, and words customarily written in kana	は, を, ~ます, こと
Katakana	Loanwords, foreign names, some sound words	コーヒー, テレビ

So the question is rarely “kanji or hiragana” for a whole sentence. It is which parts of each word go in which script. For the scripts themselves, see the hiragana chart, the katakana chart and what is kanji.

Reason 1: grammar is always hiragana

Particles (は, が, を, に), verb and adjective endings, and polite forms such as ~ます are written in hiragana. That includes okurigana, the kana that follow a kanji stem: in 食べる (to eat), 食 carries the meaning and べる carries the grammar, so 食べた, 食べない and 食べます can all share one kanji. Where the kanji ends and the kana begin follows an official standard, 送り仮名の付け方 (Cabinet notice of 1973), which is also what Japanese schools teach.

This is the hiragana you meet in every sentence, and it is never replaced by kanji.

Reason 2: the kanji’s meaning has faded

This is the reason most learners notice, because the kanji exists, is common, and you may already know it. The government guide lists words that are written in kana even though a jōyō kanji is available. The pattern is simple: when a word is used for its grammatical function rather than its concrete meaning, it is written in hiragana.

Usually written	Kanji form (avoided in this use)	Kanji kept when the meaning is concrete
こと (abstract “thing”, as in 行くことができる)	事	事は重大である (the matter is serious)
とき (when)	時	法律の定める年齢に達した時 (on reaching the age set by law)
ところ, もの	所, 物	家を建てる所 (the place to build a house)
~ていく, ~てくる, ~てみる	行く, 来る, 見る	街へ行く (go to town), しっかり見る (look closely)
~てください, ~ていただく	下さる, 頂く	賞状を頂く (receive a certificate)
ある, ない (“there is”, “there isn’t”)	有る, 無い	有り・無し, when contrasting the two
できる, いる, なる	出来る, 居る, 成る	出来が良い (well made)
これ, それ, どれ, ここ, そこ	—	—
ありがとう, おはよう, こんにちは	有難う, お早う, 今日は	—
たくさん, いろいろ, ちょうど	沢山, 色々, 丁度	—
たばこ, すばらしい, ちょっと	煙草, 素晴らしい, 一寸	—

The examples come from section I-1 (3) of the guide, “常用漢字表に使える漢字があっても仮名で書く場合” (words written in kana even when the jōyō list has a usable kanji). The guide also writes most conjunctions in kana, such as しかし, したがって, ただし and また, but keeps a few in kanji in official documents: 及び, 又は, 並びに and 若しくは.

So when you see 見る in one sentence and てみる in the next, nothing is wrong. 見 means “see” when you actually look at something; in 食べてみる (“try eating”) it is a grammar helper, and the kanji goes away. The same goes for 行, 来, 事, 時, 所, 物, 有 and 無.

Reason 3: the kanji is not on the jōyō list

The jōyō kanji table (常用漢字表, 2010 Cabinet notice No. 2) lists 2,136 characters with their approved readings. Its preface says it is a guideline (目安) for writing in everyday public life, such as laws, official documents, newspapers, magazines and broadcasting. When a word’s kanji, or the reading needed, is not on that list, writers in those settings usually write it some other way. The government guide gives the options:

• Write the word in hiragana. あえて (敢えて), あらかじめ (予め), うれしい (嬉しい), おおむね (概ね), あっせん (斡旋), ごちそう (御馳走), せっけん (石鹸).
• Use a jōyō kanji with the same reading and meaning. 車輌 becomes 車両, 編輯 becomes 編集.
• Say it with other words. 逼迫 becomes 切迫, 漏洩する becomes 漏らす.
• Write only the missing kanji in kana, or keep it with furigana. 改竄 becomes 改ざん, 招聘 becomes 招へい, 絆 becomes きずな.

That last option, half kanji and half kana, is called 交ぜ書き (mazegaki). It looks odd to learners, but you will see it in news and official notices, because it keeps the word readable for people who were never taught the rare kanji.

Animal and plant names follow the same idea: names written with non-jōyō kanji go in kana (ねずみ, らくだ), and the guide adds that scientific usage often puts them in katakana (ネズミ, ラクダ).

Reason 4: the reader

Writers also choose kana simply to make a text easier for its reader.

• Children. Japanese schools introduce kanji grade by grade (1,026 of them in elementary school, see kanji by grade level), so texts for young readers write words in hiragana until the kanji has been taught, or add furigana.
• The general public. The government guide says that explanations and public information may use friendlier spellings, and gives examples written in kana in everyday life even though official documents use kanji: ご指導 for 御指導, および for 及び, または for 又は, すでに for 既に.
• Style. The jōyō table says it does not extend to individual people’s writing (個々人の表記). Novelists, advertisers and friends texting each other choose freely. Writing a word in kana is called “opening” it (開く, hiraku); writing it in kanji is “closing” it (閉じる, tojiru).

Why is kanji used instead of hiragana, then?

Because for content words, kanji make text faster to read. Japanese has no spaces, so kanji mark where content words start, and the language has many words that sound alike, such as こうしょう, which kanji tell apart at a glance. That argument is covered in does kanji make Japanese harder to read. The rules above are the other side of the same idea: kanji are kept where they carry meaning and dropped where they do not.

Do Japanese use hiragana or kanji more?

Both, all the time. A normal sentence uses kanji for its nouns and verb stems and hiragana for everything that holds them together, plus the kana words from reason 2. How the two balance out depends on the text: a children’s book, a novel, a legal text and a chat message all look different. Be wary of any precise percentage you see quoted; there is no single official figure.

Can you use hiragana instead of kanji?

Yes, and as a learner you will. Practical rules of thumb:

1. When writing, kana for kanji you do not know is fine. It will be understood. Over time, replace kana with kanji for common words, because adult text with 学校 written as がっこう can feel childish or tiring to read.
2. Do not “upgrade” kana words to kanji. When you type, your input method may offer 事, 時, 下さい or 有難う. Following the conventions above, leave こと, とき, ください and ありがとう in hiragana in their grammatical use.
3. When reading, expect some words you know in kanji to appear in kana, and the reverse. Learn both shapes of very common words.
4. Learn the kanji anyway. Reading real Japanese needs the common kanji. If a kanji’s reading is the problem, see kanji to hiragana and how to read kanji without furigana.

Even the names of the scripts follow the mixed system: 平仮名 (hiragana) is written with 平 “plain”, 仮 “provisional” and 名 “name”, and you will see the word itself written both 平仮名 and ひらがな.

Learn the kanji that stay kanji

The kanji that survive all these rules are the ones that carry meaning, and those are the ones worth learning. Kanji Guide gives every kanji a picture story, readings, example words and stroke order. Start with the JLPT N5 kanji list, open the study app in your browser, or get the Kanji Guide iPhone app on the App Store.