班 means “squad, group, team”

はん · han

Also: corps, unit

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ハン

JLPT N1 · Taught in grade 6 · 10 strokes

The story

A knife (刂) between two pieces of jade (王 王): a precious stone split to be shared out. 班 divides people into working groups: Japanese classes split into 班 to serve lunch and clean the room, and TV news sends out a 取材班.

Used in 班長 (hanchou, group leader), 救護班 (kyuugohan, first-aid team), and 取材班 (shuzaihan, reporting team)

More from Samurai & Soldiers

• 郭 enclosure
• 騎 horseback rider
• 藩 feudal domain
• 侍 samurai
• 屯 be stationed
• 曹 sergeant
• 尉 junior officer
• 隷 slave
• 帥 commander-in-chief
• 佐 aide
• 士 warrior
• 隊 troop

Learn 班 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.