How many kana there are depends on which list is counted

Japanese is written partly in two kana scripts, hiragana and katakana, in which each sound takes one kana or a pair of them. How many kana there are depends on what is counted. By our count, the rule in force today, the 1986 cabinet notice on modern kana usage, lists 108 entries, 36 of them two-kana combinations. A learner's chart shows 46: the 45 kana that modern spelling places in the fifty-cell grid, plus ん. Charts that keep ゐ and ゑ, which left everyday writing in 1946, show 48. Fifty is the number of cells.

The Japan Foundation's 2024 survey of Japanese-language institutions abroad ranks Indonesia second, with 732,914 learners at responding institutions, and puts Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar in its top ten too; the ranking covers countries and regions, Taiwan among the latter. Romanisations below are modified Hepburn.

Everyday kana shed ゐ and ゑ under a 1946 cabinet notice

Japan's National Language Council recommended new kana rules on 21 September 1946, and the cabinet issued them as a notice on 16 November, according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs' record of the council. The council's text says that ゐ, ゑ and を are written い, え and お, except for the particle を. Kanji forms are a separate story, told in our guide to old and new kanji forms.

The directive issued with 昭和61年内閣告示第1号 on 1 July 1986 abolishes the 1946 notice, and the 1986 list again leaves out ゐ and ゑ. The particle keeps を, and the notice's examples include やむをえない and てにをは. ぢ and づ also survive, in words such as ちぢむ and はなぢ.

Present-day kana fill all but five cells of the gojūon grid

The gojūon, or fifty-sound table, sets ten rows against the five vowels a, i, u, e and o. Modern kana fill 45 cells. The Y row holds only や, ゆ and よ, and the W row only わ and を, which leaves yi, ye, wu, wi and we empty. ん sits outside the grid. The 1986 notice's own table prints よ and を in the o column.

Until 19 October 2026 our kana chart packed the Y and W rows to the left, so よ sat under u and を under i. Its transcriber wrote kawaī, nīgata and omō, and it lacked ヴュ, so ヴュー came out as "vuュ". Its Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki paths failed on all 32 extended katakana it carried.

The revision committed that day puts each kana under its vowel. Tick "ゐ / ゑ" under Include and the W row reads わ, ゐ, a blank, ゑ, を. The transcriber now writes omou, kawaii and niigata by default, with macrons as an option, the Extended group carries 33 combinations, and a system with no spelling for a kana returns it in brackets, as in [ファ].

Voiced, small and combined forms bring the current list to 108 entries

The notice prints no total and names no row voiced or semi-voiced; the grouping and sum below are ours, from its first section.

The notice underlines six of the 108 and reserves them for the special cases in its second section: ぢ, づ, を and the three combinations ぢゃ, ぢゅ and ぢょ. The learner's 46 is the first row plus ん; 48 adds ゐ and ゑ.