kanji
logographic writing system
Kanji originates from the chinese Hànzì characters. It is estimated that there exists more than 80.000 kanji today. Of course, only a small part of these are used in everyday life.
In Japan the children are taught different sets of kanji, depending the grade. The Japanese learn the first 1006 kanji in elementary school, the Kyoiku kanji. In Junior High and High School they learn another 939 kanji. These 1945 kanji is called the Joyo kanji.
There are plans for including an additional 196 characters and remove 5 characters, which gives a total of 2,136.
Besides these are 983 kanji used only for family names.
For a foreigner to live and get by in Japan, it is recommended to achieve the JLPT N1. That basicaly means to be able to read the Joyo kanji and have a vocabulary consisting of about 8000 words.
There's lots of good books and sites that can help you learn the different kanji.
At the table below, you see the 80 kanji you're required to know to pass the JLPT N5:
If you want to become good at kanji, I recommend these sites:http://www.kanjisite.com
http://www.readthekanji.com/