Furigana (振り仮名) are small kana, usually hiragana, printed above a kanji (or beside it in vertical text) to show how it is read. In 今日, the small きょう tells you the word is kyō, “today”. Children’s books, manga for younger readers and learner materials print them on every kanji; adult texts add them only to rare kanji and names. For learners they are a bridge: they let you read real sentences now, and the goal is to need them a little less each month.
In short
- Furigana give the reading of a kanji; okurigana are kana that belong to the word (the しい in 新しい).
- Use them freely at the start, then hide them for kanji you know: the tool below shows the common “hide for N5” setting.
- On the web, furigana are written with the
rubyelement.
Try it: furigana on, off or on hover
今日は日曜日です。朝、友達と駅の近くの喫茶店に行きました。外は雨でしたが、店の中は暖かかったです。私は温かい紅茶を飲んで、友達は新しい本を読みました。来週は一緒に映画を見る約束をしました。
Show the English
Today is Sunday. In the morning I went to a coffee shop near the station with a friend. It was raining outside, but inside the shop it was warm. I drank hot black tea, and my friend read a new book. We promised to see a movie together next week.
Furigana are on for every kanji.
The N5 setting uses a common unofficial list of 80 JLPT N5 kanji (the JLPT publishes no official list). A word keeps its furigana unless every kanji in it is on the list, so 今日 loses its reading but 友達 keeps it. While furigana are on, words that lost theirs are underlined with dots.
When does furigana help?
- When you know the word but not the kanji. You can say ともだち; furigana connect the sound you know to 友達.
- When a kanji has several readings. 日, 日曜日 and 今日 all use 日, read three different ways. Furigana show which reading applies here. Our guide to onyomi and kunyomi explains why.
- When you want to read real material early. With furigana, an N5 learner can read news written for learners instead of only textbook sentences.
When does furigana become a crutch?
Your eyes go to the easiest text. With furigana on every kanji, many learners read the kana line and stop looking at the kanji, so after months of reading they still cannot read 駅 or 店 on a sign. A simple test: cover the furigana in a passage you have read before. If you cannot read words you have seen many times, the furigana are doing the work for you.
How to wean yourself off furigana
- Switch to hover or tap. Read each word first, then check. Looking up only when stuck is the habit you want.
- Hide the readings at your level. Start with N5 kanji, as in the tool above, and move the line up as you learn more.
- Read twice. Once with furigana for meaning, once without for the kanji.
- Save the words you look up. A word you have looked up three times needs reviewing, not another lookup.
- Move to texts without furigana at your level, with a tap-to-look-up dictionary for the words you do not know.
Furigana, okurigana and romaji: what is the difference?
| Term | What it is | Example | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Furigana | Small kana above a kanji showing its reading; optional | 新しい | Children’s books, learner texts, rare kanji and names |
| Okurigana | Kana after a kanji that are part of the word; always written | The しい in 新しい | Every Japanese text |
| Romaji | Japanese written in Latin letters | atarashii | Signs for visitors, beginner textbooks, typing on a keyboard |
How do you write and show furigana?
On the web: the ruby element
HTML has an element made for furigana. Put the kanji inside ruby and the reading inside rt:
<ruby>漢字<rt>かんじ</rt></ruby>Browsers draw the reading above the kanji at about half size. For the rare program that cannot show ruby, add rp brackets, which appear only there: <ruby>漢字<rp>(</rp><rt>かんじ</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby> shows as 漢字(かんじ). The passage above is built this way; the hover setting hides the rt line until you point at a word.
Typing Japanese: you already type the furigana
With a Japanese keyboard (IME) on a computer or phone, you type the reading and convert it: type kyou, see きょう, press space to choose 今日. So you always know the reading of what you type. In Microsoft Word, the Phonetic Guide button adds furigana to selected kanji when Japanese is one of your editing languages.
Where can you find Japanese text with furigana?
- NHK News Web Easy: short, simplified news stories with furigana on every kanji.
- Graded readers written for learners, from absolute-beginner level up, usually with furigana throughout.
- Children’s books and manga for younger readers, which often print furigana on every kanji.
- Any text you choose: paste it into the furigana reader in your browser (paste any text: an email, a lyric, a story) and every kanji gets its reading.
- A Japanese reading app with furigana: YoMoo puts furigana and JLPT colours on news, JLPT practice passages and your own text, and one tap shows a word’s meaning.
To compare reading apps, see the best Japanese reading apps for beginners.
Frequently asked questions
What is furigana?
Furigana are small kana, usually hiragana, printed above kanji (or to the right in vertical text) to show how they are read. In 今日 with きょう above it, the furigana tell you the word is kyō, “today”. They appear in children’s books, manga for younger readers, learner materials and next to rare kanji and names in adult texts.
What is the difference between furigana and okurigana?
Furigana sit above a kanji and give its reading; you can remove them and the word is still complete. Okurigana are the kana written after a kanji as part of the word itself, like the き in 行きます or the しい in 新しい; they are always there.
Should beginners read with furigana?
Yes, at first. Furigana let you read real sentences before you know many kanji, and you learn readings by seeing them next to the characters. The risk is reading only the kana, so hide them for kanji you already know and test yourself before you look.
How do you add furigana in HTML?
Use the ruby element: the kanji go inside a ruby element and the reading inside an rt element, and browsers draw the reading above the kanji. Add rp elements holding brackets for programs that cannot show ruby; the section on writing furigana above shows the code.
Where can I find Japanese texts with furigana?
NHK News Web Easy prints simplified news with furigana on every kanji. Graded readers for learners and many children’s books and manga for younger readers have them too. To add furigana to any text yourself, paste it into a furigana reader such as YoMoo’s, which puts the reading on every kanji.
Last reviewed November 1, 2026. The N5 kanji set is a common unofficial list; the JLPT has not published official kanji or vocabulary lists since the current test began in 2010.