1,006 教育漢字 (1,006 Kyōiku kanji) Kyōiku kanji (教育漢字, lit. "education kanji"), also known as Gakunenbetsu kanji haitōhyō (学年 別漢字配当表, lit. "list of kanji by school year") is a list of 1,006 kanji and associated readings developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education that prescribes which kanji, and which readings of kanji, Japanese schoolchildren should learn for each year of elementary school. Although the list is designed for Japanese children, it can also be used as a sequence of learning characters by non-native speakers in order to limit the kanji to the most commonly used. ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%8Diku_kanji
