Your first week in Japan, long before anyone asks you a question in Japanese, you will be reading. Doors, stations, shops, workplaces and apartment buildings speak to you through short signs, usually two to four kanji. The JFT-Basic is built on exactly this everyday Japanese. Its first section, Script and Vocabulary, includes kanji reading and kanji meaning questions, and its Reading section includes information search tasks with real-life documents. Reading common signs in a second is one of the fastest ways to gain points and confidence.
The Japan Foundation publishes no official list of signs or kanji for the test, so treat this list as practical study, not a leak of test content. These are the signs we would want every candidate to read without thinking.
The 10 signs
10 everyday signs
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 入口 | いりぐち | Entrance入 = enter, 口 = opening |
| 出口 | でぐち | Exit出 = go out |
| 非常口 | ひじょうぐち | Emergency exitUsually a green sign with a running figure |
| 禁煙 | きんえん | No smoking禁 = forbid, 煙 = smoke |
| 立入禁止 | たちいりきんし | Keep out / No entryCommon on building sites and staff areas |
| 押 / 引 | おす / ひく | Push / PullOften only one kanji on the door |
| 営業中 | えいぎょうちゅう | Open (for business)中 = in progress |
| 準備中 | じゅんびちゅう | Closed, getting readySeen on restaurant doors between lunch and dinner |
| お手洗い | おてあらい | ToiletsAlso トイレ; 男 = men, 女 = women |
| 危険 | きけん | DangerOften in red or on yellow and black |
Group 1: ways in and out
入口 and 出口 are a pair. Both end in 口 (くち, "mouth"), which on signs means an opening or a gate, and it changes its sound to ぐち after another word. Learn 入 (enter) and 出 (go out), and you can read station exits like 東口 (east exit) and 西口 (west exit) too.
非常口 adds 非常, "emergency". You will see it above doors in every workplace, hotel and dormitory. Since the JFT-Basic covers topics such as disaster preparedness, words around evacuation are worth knowing: 避難所 (ひなんじょ, evacuation shelter) is the next one to learn.
Group 2: rules and warnings
禁煙 and 立入禁止 share 禁 (forbid). The pattern 〜禁止 (きんし, "prohibited") turns up everywhere:
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 駐車禁止 | ちゅうしゃきんし | No parking |
| 撮影禁止 | さつえいきんし | No photography |
| 喫煙所 | きつえんじょ | Smoking areaThe opposite of 禁煙 |
| 止まれ | とまれ | StopPainted on roads and on red triangle signs |
危険 (danger) appears on machines, wires and stairs. At work it is often next to instructions you must follow, so read the words around it, not just the warning itself.
Group 3: shops and doors
営業中 and 準備中 both end in 中 (ちゅう), "in the middle of". Once you know that, 使用中 (しようちゅう, in use, on a toilet door) and 故障中 (こしょうちゅう, out of order, on a vending machine) make sense on sight.
押 / 引 on doors are short for 押す (push) and 引く (pull). Many learners get these backwards for weeks. A memory trick: 押 has the hand radical on the left; you push with your hand.
お手洗い literally means "hand washing". You will also see トイレ in katakana, and 男 (men) and 女 (women) on the doors.
How signs show up in test-style questions
You won't be asked "what does this sign say?" in isolation. Test-style questions put the word in a situation. In a kanji meaning item, you might read a short sentence about where to meet a friend at a station, and choose which kanji word fits. In a kanji reading item, a kanji word is underlined and you choose its reading in hiragana, so a near miss such as いりくち instead of いりぐち is exactly the kind of wrong option to expect. In information search, you look at a floor guide, a notice or a schedule and find one fact.
The sample questions guide shows each question type, and the vocabulary and kanji guide lists the core words by situation.
How to learn them for good
- Learn the kanji pieces, not just the words. 口, 中, 禁止 and 入/出 unlock dozens of signs.
- Say the reading aloud every time you see the word. Kanji reading questions test the exact sound, including voicing like くち to ぐち.
- Make it visual. Search for photos of each sign and save them in one album on your phone. Review the album while you wait for the bus.
- Practise kana speed too. Many signs mix kanji and kana (止まれ, お手洗い). If your hiragana is slow, start with the kana quiz.
- Test yourself in context with the free practice test.
The short version
Ten signs cover most of what you will read on a door or a wall in your first days in Japan: 入口, 出口, 非常口, 禁煙, 立入禁止, 押/引, 営業中, 準備中, お手洗い and 危険. Learn the building blocks 口, 中 and 禁止, say every reading aloud, and you will read many more signs than these ten, which is the kind of everyday Japanese the JFT-Basic is built on.