Here's a breakdown:
* Individual characters: There are thousands of individual characters used in Japanese.
* Hiragana: 46 characters, representing syllables.
* Katakana: 46 characters, also representing syllables, mainly used for foreign words and emphasis.
* Kanji: Thousands of characters borrowed from Chinese, representing words or concepts.
* The "Jōyō kanji" list, used in everyday writing, contains 2,136 kanji.
* The "常用漢字" (Jōyō Kanji) list contains 1,945 kanji.
* The "常用漢字表" (Jōyō Kanji Hyō) contains 2,136 kanji.
Therefore, there's no single answer to your question. You need to specify what kind of "symbols" you're interested in.
* If you're talking about all the characters used in Japanese writing, the number is in the thousands.
* If you're referring to hiragana and katakana, there are 92 characters in total.
* If you're asking about the number of kanji commonly used, it depends on the list you consider, ranging from 1,945 to 2,136 characters.
Let me know if you'd like a more specific answer!