Kanji (which derive from Chinese characters) are indexed based on the on-yomi reading which approximately matches the Chinese sound - albeit as understood sever

Kanji (which derive from Chinese characters) are indexed based on the on-yomi reading which approximately matches the Chinese sound - albeit as understood several centuries ago. The index can be ordered on gojuon ('fifty sounds') or Iroha, a Japanese poem which contains all syllabic sounds of the Japanese language exactly once. This is more likely as Iroha was the standard ordering for centuries and continues to be used today in many contexts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha Japanese is hard to read and write, but you can do it with practice. Complex kanji are not unlike complex words whose spelling you can learn through chunking. There are ~214 bushu, aka 'radicals', fairly simple characters from which all more complicated characters are made. In practice you only need to know about half of them unless you plan on being a hardcore language scholar, the others are rare. Once you get used to this, complex kanji are not arbitrary pictograms of 5-30 unique strokes, but small arrays of 2-4 bushu which are combined and written according to a small (8,8) set of rules. I think this is way more useful than the mnemonic approach used in many popular books. In short, if you want to learn written Japanese (or Chinese/Chinese adjacent languages), learn the radicals early on. You can find Anki decks to help and mastering 214 of them is reasonably easy. Also, write. Nothing improves your recognition/retention like writing them regularly with a pen or a brush. Write them on your hand. Write them in the air.