Kanji for Car

The kanji most commonly used for "Car" is 車.

車

Kanji that mean Car

車

vehicle, wheel

Also associated with rickshaw.

Onyomi: sha Kunyomi: kuruma 7 strokes Jōyō

車 (kuruma / sha) is a picture of a cart seen from above — axle, wheels and body drawn in seven strokes, essentially unchanged for three thousand years. It means any wheeled vehicle: as kuruma it is “the car” in everyday speech; as sha it powers the whole vocabulary of transport — 自動車 (automobile), 電車 (train), 自転車 (bicycle), 駐車 (parking).

It is also one of the most productive radicals: characters with 車 in them tend to involve rolling or carrying — 転 (to roll, turn), 輪 (wheel, ring), 軽 (light), 運 (to transport; also luck).

In shōgi, Japanese chess, the strongest piece is the 飛車, the “flying chariot” — the same character doing duty eight centuries before the automobile arrived to claim it.

Words using Car kanji

Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.

自動車じどうしゃ car; automobile; motorcar
下車げしゃ alighting (from a train, bus, etc.); getting off; getting out (of a car)
乗用車じょうようしゃ (passenger) car; automobile
列車れっしゃ train; railway train
電車でんしゃ train; electric train
自転車じてんしゃ bicycle; bike

Before you use Car kanji

車 is a plain, concrete character — "vehicle". A Japanese reader sees a word, not an image; on its own it reads like signage. If cars are genuinely your thing, 愛車 ("beloved car") is what enthusiasts actually call their machine, and it makes the affection explicit.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →