A complete list of the 1,945x essential Jōyō Kanji published by the Japanese Ministry of Education.

A complete list of the 1,945x essential Joyo Kanji published by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1981.

The jōyō kanji (常用漢字) is the guide to kanji, announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education.

History

1923: The Ministry of Education specified 1,962 kanji and 154 simplified characters.
1931: The former jōyō kanji was revised and 1,858 characters were specified.
1942: 1,134 characters as standard jōyō kanji and 1,320 characters as sub-jōyō kanji were specified.
1946: The 1,850 characters of tōyō kanji were adopted by law “as those most essential for common use.
1981: The 1,945 characters of jōyō kanji were adopted, replacing the list of tōyō kanji.
2010: The list was revised to include an additional 196 characters and remove 5 characters for a total of 2,136.