Free Printable Japanese Writing Paper

Which Japanese writing paper should I use?

For learning to write kanji and kana, use the practice squares. The dashed cross in each square shows where the center of the character sits, so the parts of a kanji land in the right place and every character comes out the same size. Start with the 20 mm squares and move to 15 mm once your characters are steady; 10 mm is close to the size of ordinary handwriting and suits vocabulary lists and sentences.

For writing whole texts, use genkō yōshi. It is what Japanese students write compositions on, what Japanese language schools hand out for essay homework, and the format of the writing section in many classroom tests. Writing on it teaches the conventions of vertical Japanese text at the same time: one character per square, where the punctuation goes, how paragraphs start.

How to write on genkō yōshi

Genkō yōshi is read the way a Japanese book is: columns run from top to bottom, and the columns go from right to left, so the first column is the one on the right. The rules below are the ones taught in Japanese schools and expected in exams.

• Write the title in the first column, leaving the top two or three squares empty.
• Write your name in the second column, ending one square above the bottom. Leave a square between family name and given name.
• Start the text in the third column, and leave the first square of every new paragraph empty.
• Every character, kana, small kana (っ, ゃ, ゅ, ょ) and punctuation mark takes one square. Long vowel marks (ー) and dashes also take a square, drawn vertically.
• Full stops (。) and commas (、) sit in the top right corner of their square. A full stop, comma or closing bracket never starts a column: if it would, squeeze it into the last square of the previous column with the character already there.
• Opening quotation brackets (「) take a square and may start a column; closing brackets (」) follow the same rule as full stops.
• Numbers in vertical text are usually written in kanji (一, 二, 三), not Arabic digits.

A 400-character sheet is the standard unit of length: an assignment asking for “two sheets” means about 800 characters.

Writing furigana above kanji

In horizontal text, furigana (the small kana giving a kanji's reading) sits directly above the kanji. The furigana practice sheets add a strip above each row of squares for exactly that: write the kanji in the square and its reading in the strip above it. Teachers use these for vocabulary lists where students write the word, its reading and sometimes the meaning in one place, and learners use them to test themselves by covering one of the two.

Printing tips

Print at 100% or “Actual size”, not “Fit to page”, so the squares keep their stated size. Pick the PDF that matches the paper in your printer: A4 in most of the world, Letter in the US and Canada. The 400-character genkō yōshi prints in landscape; the printer picks that up from the PDF. Lines are light gray on purpose, so your pen stands out and photocopies stay clean.

Using the paper in GoodNotes, or as a notebook

Each PDF is a single page, so it works as a template in GoodNotes, Notability, Noteshelf or any PDF note app: import it, set it as a page template and add pages as you go. For a paper notebook, print a stack and bind or clip them, or print on both sides.

Need a worksheet with stroke order?

Blank paper is for free writing. If you want the stroke order of particular characters printed on the sheet, with tracing squares and blank ones to practice from memory, use the free kanji worksheet generator: pick any JLPT level or your own text and print the worksheet. For kana, the hiragana worksheets and katakana worksheets print the chart one row at a time.

Frequently asked questions