Which scripts does it count?

It counts hiragana (U+3040–U+309F), katakana (U+30A0–U+30FF and half-width forms), kanji (the CJK Unified Ideographs block), and romaji (basic Latin letters). Punctuation, digits, and whitespace are excluded from the percentages so they reflect only script characters.

Why does kanji density indicate difficulty?

Kanji carry the most semantic weight and have the largest learning burden, so passages rich in kanji typically target literate adults. Texts aimed at children or beginners use furigana and lean on hiragana, lowering the kanji share.

How is katakana usually used?

Katakana mainly writes foreign loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and emphasis. A high katakana ratio often signals technical, marketing, or pop-culture content rather than literary prose.

Does it separate full-width and half-width katakana?

Both full-width and half-width katakana are counted together as katakana, since they represent the same script. Half-width forms are common in older systems and some technical contexts but read as the same characters.

Japanese Mixed-Script Ratio Analyzer

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The Japanese Mixed-Script Ratio Analyzer breaks a passage into its four writing systems and reports the percentage of each. Because Japanese blends scripts, the mix is a fast proxy for reading difficulty and intended audience.

How it works

Every character is classified by its Unicode block, and non-script characters are excluded from the totals:

hiragana  U+3040–U+309F        grammar, particles, easy words
katakana  U+30A0–U+30FF + ﾊﾝｶｸ loanwords, onomatopoeia, emphasis
kanji     U+4E00–U+9FFF (CJK)  content words, highest learning load
romaji    A–Z a–z              acronyms, brand names, foreign terms

Percentages are computed over the script-character total only, so spaces, punctuation, and digits do not dilute the figures. The kanji share, in particular, is the headline indicator of difficulty.

Tips and notes

A passage that is mostly hiragana with little kanji usually targets children or beginning learners, often paired with furigana. A high kanji ratio points to newspapers, official documents, or literary adult prose. A notable katakana share suggests technical, scientific, or marketing material full of loanwords. Use the breakdown together: two texts with the same kanji percentage can still differ in tone if one leans on katakana loanwords and the other on native hiragana grammar.