This is the quickest way to learn written Japanese effectively.
Japanese characters, called kanji, often intimidate potential students of the language with their complex and mysterious appearance. Read Japanese Today is a comprehensible and story-like approach to an often difficult language. This book will teach you to recognize and read the 400 most commonly used Japanese kanji characters. Completely revised and expanded and featuring 25 percent more kanji than previous editions, Read Japanese Today is a fun way to demystify the beautiful Japanese language.
Far from being complex and mysterious, Japanese kanji are actually a simple and fascinating pictographic system, easily understood and readily mastered. With the approach used in this easy-to-read, entertaining book, you'll soon be able to recognize and read more than 400 kanji, whether or not you have any knowledge of Japanese grammar or the spoken language. The kanji characters stick in your mind thanks to an engaging text and illustrations that show how each character developed and what it represents. The description for each kanji explains its origin, its modern meaning, and how it is pronounced. Many examples of everyday usage are included. Read Japanese Today also includes:

A brief history of the Japanese writing system.

Explanations for how the parts of each kanji are related to the whole.

Guidelines for writing Kanji and pronouncing words using them.

An introduction to the Japanese hiragana and katakana syllabaries.

A complete index to English meanings and a summary table for all of the kanji that are introduced in the book.