The short answer: a few hundred characters, recognition only, and you never have to write one.
That is a much smaller job than most beginners assume, and getting the scope right is worth more than any study technique.
Recognition, never production
JFT-Basic is a computer-based, multiple-choice test. You click an option. At no point are you asked to produce a character.
This matters enormously for how you spend your time. Learning to write kanji from memory — stroke order, correct proportions, recall from nothing — is several times more expensive than learning to recognise it. For this exam, that expense buys you nothing.
So: read 電車 and know it means train. Do not practise writing it.
There is no official list
As with vocabulary, the Japan Foundation does not publish a kanji list for JFT-Basic. Sites that present one are presenting an estimate.
What is reliable is the level: A2, daily life and work. That points at the kanji you actually meet on signs, notices, forms and workplace messages in Japan — which is a practical set, not an academic one.
The kanji that actually appear
In rough order of usefulness:
- Numbers and dates. 一二三四五六七八九十百千, 円, 年月日, 時分, 曜日. These are non-negotiable and they appear constantly, especially in reading notices.
- Directions and places. 上下中外, 右左, 前後, 駅, 店, 病院, 会社, 部屋.
- Everyday verbs in kanji form. 行, 来, 見, 聞, 食, 飲, 買, 使, 休.
- Signs and notices. 入口, 出口, 休, 中止, 故障, 注意, 禁止.
- Work. 会議, 時間, 仕事, 社員.
If you learned only dates, times, numbers and sign vocabulary, you would already handle a large share of what the reading section throws at you.
How to study it
In words, not as isolated characters. 電 on its own is an abstraction. 電車 and 電話 together teach you the character, both words, and the distinction the exam will test. Characters learned inside words stick; characters learned alone decay.
With the confusable neighbour attached. 病院 and 美容院 differ by one element and mean hospital and hair salon. That pair is worth more than either alone, because the pair is what the test presents.
Through reading real notices, not through drill sheets. Shop notices, station signs, rubbish collection rules, short workplace messages. This doubles as reading practice, which is the section where kanji recognition pays out.
Not by stroke order. It is a beautiful skill and it is not on this test.
What about furigana?
Do not count on it. Build recognition of the common forms rather than planning around support that may not be there.
If kanji is genuinely blocking you
Check that it is. Candidates frequently blame kanji for a reading score that is actually a vocabulary problem — not knowing the word, rather than not recognising the character.
Sit a full-length timed test and look at the breakdown. The free practice test explains every answer, which makes the distinction visible: if you understood the sentence but could not read one character, that is kanji. If the sentence meant nothing even in kana, that is vocabulary.
They have different fixes, and the second is far more common.
And before you panic about it
Remember that JFT-Basic has no section minimum — only the total out of 250 counts. Kanji recognition supports reading and vocabulary, but a candidate who is weak on characters and strong elsewhere can still pass comfortably. See what 200 points actually means.