Game Freak celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise by announcing Pokémon Winds and Waves, the long-awaited new mainline entry in the RPG series. As per tradition, Winds and Waves will introduce the 10th generation of Pokémon to the National Pokédex, and the three new starters have already been revealed. New trainers will be able to pick among the grass-type Browt, the fire-type Pombon and the water-type Gecqua.
With the addition of Generation 10, the National Pokédex will expand way beyond its current number of registered Pokémon, which currently sits at 1,025. And if we count the three new creatures, the (unofficial) number of existing Pokémon at the time of writing will be exactly 1,028. Interestingly, some Japanese X users pointing out that, now that Generation 10 is in sight, the number of Pokémon has finally surpassed the number of kanji which Japanese kids learn to read and write in elementary school – which is exactly 1,026.
To give a brief explanation, the 1,026 “kyōiku kanji” (education kanji) are a set of characters Japanese kids are required to learn from first through sixth grade of elementary school, as determined by MEXT. The 1,026 kanji are a part of the jōyō (regular use) kanji list, which has a total of 2,136 characters and compiles the most commonly used kanji in Japanese. The remaining 1,110 kanji are taught from the first to third grade of middle school.
Since Pokémon has always been popular among Japanese kids (Scarlet and Violet ranks quite high among Japanese teenagers), the funny coincidence now has the potential to be turned into another “gotcha” by parents trying to force their children to learn the stroke orders and meanings of all 1,026 kanji. “We just got one more way for nagging parents to lecture their kids. Something along the lines of: You can memorize all Pokémon yet you say you don’t understand kanji? Unbelievable,” one user joked.
Some would argue that Pokémon are easier to remember than kanji because kanji have meanings, multiple readings and stroke orders, but they forget that remembering all the Pokémon is equally as challenging, other users suggest. “Don’t forget that it’s not just the Pokémon’s names, but also types and abilities. […] My daughter remembers all the names and the types.” Some netizens even argued that, with the expansion of the Pokédex, you could help your kids learn kanji by likening them to Pokémon. “If Pokemon names were written in kanji, the kids’ kanji ability would probably skyrocket. Why is it so difficult for kids to remember names of shoguns or historical years, but they can remember names of Pokémon alongside their base stats,” another user joked.
That being said, Pokémon fans learning Japanese as a foreign language also have no excuse now.
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