kanji#Orthographic reform and lists of kanji

File:Nihonshoki tanaka version.jpg}} (720 AD), considered by historians and archaeologists as the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan, was written entirely in kanji.]]

Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported from China.{{Cite web|last=Mathieu|date=2017-11-19|title=The History of Kanji 漢字の歴史|url=https://itsjapantime.com/the-history-of-kanji-%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2/|access-date=2021-09-12|website=It's Japan Time|language=en-US|archive-date=September 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912015057/https://itsjapantime.com/the-history-of-kanji-%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2/|url-status=live}} The earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Wa emissary in 57 AD.{{Cite web| title =Gold Seal (Kin-in)| url =http://museum.city.fukuoka.jp/en/exhibition.html| publisher =Fukuoka City Museum| access-date =September 1, 2014| archive-date =February 26, 2017| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170226175442/http://museum.city.fukuoka.jp/en/exhibition.html| url-status =live}} Chinese coins as well as inkstones from the first century AD have also been found in Yayoi period archaeological sites.{{Sfn|Miyake|2003|p=8}} However, the Japanese people of that era probably had little to no comprehension of the script, and they would remain relatively illiterate until the fifth century AD, when writing in Japan became more widespread.{{Sfn|Miyake|2003|p=8}} According to the {{Lang|ja-latn|Nihon Shoki}} and {{Lang|ja-latn|Kojiki}}, a semi-legendary scholar called Wani was dispatched to Japan by the Kingdom of Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin in the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge of Confucianism and Chinese characters.{{Sfn|Miyake|2003|p=9}}

The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the Yamato court.{{Sfn|Miyake|2003|p=8}} For example, the diplomatic correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 AD has been praised for its skillful use of allusion. Later, groups of people called {{translit|ja|fuhito}} were organized under the monarch to read and write Classical Chinese. During the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court.{{Sfn|Miyake|2003|p=9}}

In ancient times, paper was so rare that people wrote kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood, called {{translit|ja|mokkan}} ({{linktext|lang=ja|木簡}}). These wooden boards were used for communication between government offices, tags for goods transported between various countries, and the practice of writing. The oldest written kanji in Japan discovered so far were written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated to the 7th century, a record of trading for cloth and salt.{{Cite web |title=Kumamoto Montana Natural Science Museum Association |url=https://mifunemuseum.jp/kmnsma_en/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |language=ja}}

The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced, and texts were written and read only in Chinese. Later, during the Heian period (794–1185), a system known as {{translit|ja|kanbun}} emerged, which involved using Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to read Chinese sentences and restructure them into Japanese on the fly, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar. This was essentially a kind of codified sight translation.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

Chinese characters also came to be used to write texts in the vernacular Japanese language, resulting in the modern {{translit|ja|kana}} syllabaries. Around 650 AD, a writing system called {{translit|ja|man'yōgana}} (used in the ancient poetry anthology {{Lang|ja-latn|Man'yōshū}}) evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. {{translit|ja|Man'yōgana}} written in cursive style evolved into {{translit|ja|hiragana}} (literally "fluttering {{translit|ja|kana}}" in reference to the motion of the brush during cursive writing), or {{translit|ja|onna-de}}, that is, "ladies' hand",Hadamitzky, Wolfgang and Spahn, Mark (2012), Kanji and Kana: A Complete Guide to the Japanese Writing System, Third Edition, Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing. {{ISBN|4805311169}}. p. 14. a writing system that was accessible to women (who were denied higher education). Major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in {{translit|ja|hiragana}}. {{translit|ja|Katakana}} (literally "partial {{translit|ja|kana}}", in reference to the practice of using a part of a kanji character) emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified {{translit|ja|man'yōgana}} to a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems, {{translit|ja|hiragana}} and {{translit|ja|katakana}}, referred to collectively as {{translit|ja|kana}}, are descended from kanji. In contrast with {{translit|ja|kana}} ({{linktext|lang=ja|仮名}}, literally "borrowed name", in reference to the character being "borrowed" as a label for its sound), kanji are also called {{translit|ja|mana}} ({{linktext|lang=ja|真名}}, literally "true name", in reference to the character being used as a label for its meaning).{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write certain words or parts of words (usually content words such as nouns, adjective stems, and verb stems), while {{translit|ja|hiragana}} are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings, phonetic complements to disambiguate readings ({{translit|ja|okurigana}}), particles, and miscellaneous words which have no kanji or whose kanji are considered obscure or too difficult to read or remember. {{translit|ja|Katakana}} are mostly used for representing onomatopoeia, non-Japanese loanwords (except those borrowed from ancient Chinese), the names of plants and animals (with exceptions), and for emphasis on certain words.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

{{Main|Japanese script reform}}

File:Yōshū Chikanobu Shin Bijin No. 20.jpg woodblock print by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1897.]]

Since ancient times, there has been a strong opinion in Japan that kanji is the orthodox form of writing, but there were also people who argued against it.{{Cite journal |last=Berger |first=Gordon M. |date=1975 |title=Review of Ishiwara Kanji and Japan's Confrontation with the West |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/132045 |journal=Journal of Japanese Studies |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=156–169 |doi=10.2307/132045 |jstor=132045 |issn=0095-6848 |access-date=December 8, 2022 |archive-date=December 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208042039/https://www.jstor.org/stable/132045 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Kamo no Mabuchi, a scholar of the Edo period, criticized the large number of characters in kanji. He also appreciated the small number of characters in {{translit|ja|kana}} characters and argued for the limitation of kanji.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

After the Meiji Restoration and as Japan entered an era of active exchange with foreign countries, the need for script reform in Japan began to be called for. Some scholars argued for the abolition of kanji and the writing of Japanese using only {{translit|ja|kana}} or Latin characters. However, these views were not so widespread.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

However, the need to limit the number of kanji characters was understood, and in May 1923, the Japanese government announced 1,962 kanji characters for regular use. In 1940, the Japanese Army decided on the {{nihongo|"Table of Restricted Kanji for Weapons Names"|兵器名称用制限漢字表|heiki meishō yō seigen kanji hyō}} which limited the number of kanji that could be used for weapons names to 1,235. In 1942, the National Language Council announced the {{nihongo|"Standard Kanji Table"|標準漢字表|hyōjun kanji-hyō}} with a total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society.{{Cite web |title=人名用漢字の新字旧字 第82回 「鉄」と「鐵」 |work=三省堂WORD-WISE WEB -Dictionaries & Beyond- |date=February 24, 2011 |url=https://dictionary.sanseido-publ.co.jp/column/%e7%ac%ac82%e5%9b%9e-%e3%80%8c%e9%89%84%e3%80%8d%e3%81%a8%e3%80%8c%e9%90%b5%e3%80%8d |accessdate=2015-08-14 |publisher=Sanseidō |archive-date=November 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119164301/https://dictionary.sanseido-publ.co.jp/column/%E7%AC%AC82%E5%9B%9E-%E3%80%8C%E9%89%84%E3%80%8D%E3%81%A8%E3%80%8C%E9%90%B5%E3%80%8D |url-status=live }}

In 1946, after World War II and under the Allied occupation of Japan, the Japanese government, guided by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, instituted a series of orthographic reforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established.

Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called {{nihongo||新字体|shinjitai}}. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used; these are known as {{Nihongo||表外字|hyōgaiji}}.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

{{Main|Kyōiku kanji}}

The {{Nihongo||教育漢字|kyōiku kanji|{{abbr|lit.|literally}} "education kanji"}} are the 1,026 first kanji characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, from first grade to sixth grade. The grade-level breakdown is known as the {{Nihongo||学年別漢字配当表|gakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō}}, or the {{nihongo||学習漢字|gakushū kanji}}. This list of kanji is maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education and prescribes which kanji characters and which kanji readings students should learn for each grade.

{{Main|Jōyō kanji}}

The {{Nihongo||常用漢字|jōyō kanji|regular-use kanji}} are 2,136 characters consisting of all the {{translit|ja|kyōiku}} kanji, plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school.Tamaoka, K., Makioka, S., Sanders, S. & Verdonschot, R. G. (2017). "www.kanjidatabase.com: a new interactive online database for psychological and linguistic research on Japanese kanji and their compound words". Psychological Research 81, 696–708. In publishing, characters outside this category are often given {{translit|ja|furigana}}. The {{translit|ja|jōyō}} kanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as the {{Nihongo||当用漢字|tōyō kanji|general-use kanji}}, introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, the {{translit|ja|jōyō}} kanji list was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previously {{translit|ja|jinmeiyō}} kanji; some are used to write prefecture names: {{Nihongo2|阪}}, {{Nihongo2|熊}}, {{Nihongo2|奈}}, {{Nihongo2|岡}}, {{Nihongo2|鹿}}, {{Nihongo2|梨}}, {{Nihongo2|阜}}, {{Nihongo2|埼}}, {{Nihongo2|茨}}, {{Nihongo2|栃}} and {{Nihongo2|媛}}.

{{Main|Jinmeiyō kanji}}

As of September 25, 2017, the {{Nihongo||人名用漢字|jinmeiyō kanji|kanji for use in personal names}} consists of 863 characters. Kanji on this list are mostly used in people's names and some are traditional variants of {{translit|ja|jōyō}} kanji. There were only 92 kanji in the original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the term {{translit|ja|jinmeiyō}} kanji refers to all 2,999 kanji from both the {{translit|ja|jōyō}} and {{translit|ja|jinmeiyō}} lists combined.

{{Main|Hyōgai kanji}}

{{Nihongo||表外漢字|Hyōgai kanji|"unlisted characters"}} are any kanji not contained in the {{translit|ja|jōyō}} kanji and {{translit|ja|jinmeiyō}} kanji lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, but extended shinjitai forms exist.

The Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji and {{translit|ja|kana}} define character code-points for each kanji and {{translit|ja|kana}}, as well as other forms of writing such as the Latin alphabet, Cyrillic script, Greek alphabet, Arabic numerals, etc. for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:

• JIS X 0208,[https://web.archive.org/web/20050522084722/http://www.io.com/~kazushi/encoding/jis.html#kanji90#kanji90 JIS X 0208:1997]. the most recent version of the main standard. It has 6,355 kanji.
• JIS X 0212,[https://web.archive.org/web/20050522084722/http://www.io.com/~kazushi/encoding/jis.html#kanjisup#kanjisup JIS X 0212:1990]. a supplementary standard containing a further 5,801 kanji. This standard is rarely used, mainly because the common Shift JIS encoding system could not use it. This standard is effectively obsolete.
• JIS X 0213,[https://web.archive.org/web/20050522084722/http://www.io.com/~kazushi/encoding/jis.html#kanji00#kanji00 JIS X 0213:2000]. a further revision which extended the JIS X 0208 set with 3,695 additional kanji, of which 2,743 (all but 952) were in JIS X 0212. The standard is in part designed to be compatible with Shift JIS encoding.
• JIS X 0221:1995, the Japanese version of the ISO 10646/Unicode standard.

{{Nihongo||外字|Gaiji|literally "external characters"}} are kanji that are not represented in existing Japanese encoding systems. These include variant forms of common kanji that need to be represented alongside the more conventional glyph in reference works and can include non-kanji symbols as well.

{{nihongo|||Gaiji}} can be either user-defined characters, system-specific characters or third-party add-on products.{{Cite book |last=Lunde |first=Ken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cn7jnk9WwZEC&dq=Enfour+gaiji+products&pg=PA575 |title=CJKV Information Processing |date=1999 |publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |isbn=978-1-56592-224-2 |language=en |access-date=March 11, 2022 |archive-date=May 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501062636/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cn7jnk9WwZEC&dq=Enfour+gaiji+products&pg=PA575 |url-status=live }} Both are a problem for information interchange, as the code point used to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another.

{{nihongo|||Gaiji}} were nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997 where the available number of code-points was reduced to only 940.{{Cite book |last=Lunde |first=Ken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cn7jnk9WwZEC&q=Dec+kanji&pg=PA575 |title=CJKV Information Processing |date=1999 |publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |isbn=978-1-56592-224-2 |language=en |access-date=March 11, 2022 |archive-date=May 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501062638/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cn7jnk9WwZEC&q=Dec+kanji&pg=PA575 |url-status=live }} JIS X 0213-2000 used the entire range of code-points previously allocated to {{nihongo|||gaiji}}, making them completely unusable. Most desktop and mobile systems have moved to Unicode negating the need for {{translit|ja|gaiji}} for most users. Historically, {{nihongo|||gaiji}} were used by Japanese mobile service providers for emoji.

Unicode allows for optional encoding of {{nihongo|||gaiji}} in private use areas, while Adobe's SING (Smart INdependent Glyphlets){{citation | publisher = Adobe | url = https://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2437 | title = Introducing the SING Gaiji architecture | access-date = October 18, 2015 | archive-date = October 17, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017022959/https://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2437 | url-status = live }}.{{citation | publisher = Adobe | url = https://www.adobe.com/devnet/opentype/ | title = OpenType Technology Center | access-date = October 18, 2015 | archive-date = June 1, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100601172949/https://www.adobe.com/devnet/opentype/ | url-status = live }}. technology allows the creation of customized gaiji.

The Text Encoding Initiative uses a {{angbr|g}} element to encode any non-standard character or glyph, including gaiji. The g stands for {{nihongo|||gaiji}}.{{citation | publisher = TEI-C | chapter-url = http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/WD.html | chapter = Representation of Non-standard Characters and Glyphs | title = P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange | access-date = December 26, 2011 | archive-date = December 11, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111211011842/http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/WD.html | url-status = live }}{{citation | publisher = TEI-C | chapter-url = http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-g.html | chapter = TEI element g (character or glyph) | title = P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange | access-date = December 26, 2011 | archive-date = January 5, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120105001837/http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-g.html | url-status = live }}.

There is no definitive count of kanji characters, just as there is none of Chinese characters generally. The {{translit|ja|Dai Kan-Wa Jiten}}, which is considered to be comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. The {{translit|cmn|Zhonghua Zihai}}, published in 1994 in China, contains about 85,000 characters, but the majority of them are not in common use in any country, and many are obscure variants or archaic forms.Kuang-Hui Chiu, Chi-Ching Hsu (2006). [http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/ads/doc/95/paper%20hsu95.doc Chinese Dilemmas : How Many Ideographs are Needed] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717015011/http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/ads/doc/95/paper%20hsu95.doc |date=July 17, 2011 }}, National Taipei UniversityShouhui Zhao, Dongbo Zhang, [http://www.colips.org/journals/volume17/JCLC_2007_V17_N2_04.pdf The Totality of Chinese Characters—A Digital Perspective] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912154731/http://www.colips.org/journals/volume17/JCLC_2007_V17_N2_04.pdf |date=September 12, 2016 }}Daniel G. Peebles, [http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2007-592.pdf SCML: A Structural Representation for Chinese Characters] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310162228/http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2007-592.pdf |date=March 10, 2016 }}, May 29, 2007

A list of 2,136 jōyō kanji is regarded as necessary for functional literacy in Japanese. Approximately a thousand more characters are commonly used and readily understood by the majority in Japan and a few thousand more find occasional use, particularly in specialized fields of study but those may be obscure to most out of context. A total of 13,108 characters can be encoded in various Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji.

{{Cleanup section|date=March 2022|reason=Overly verbose 'readings' section|talk=Cleaning up the mess}}

Individual kanji may be used to write one or more different words or morphemes, leading to different pronunciations or "readings." The correct reading may be determined by contextual cues (such as whether the character represents part of a compound word versus an independent word), the exact intended meaning of the word, and its position within the sentence. For example, {{lang|ja|今日}} is mostly read {{translit|ja|kyō}}, meaning "today", but in formal writing it is read {{translit|ja|konnichi}}, meaning "nowadays". {{translit|ja|Furigana}} is used to specify ambiguous readings, such as rare, literary, or otherwise non-standard readings.{{Cite journal |last1=Verdonschot |first1=R. G. |last2=La Heij |first2=W. |last3=Tamaoka |first3=K. |last4=Kiyama |first4=S. |last5=You |first5=W. P. |last6=Schiller |first6=N. O. |year=2013 |title=The multiple pronunciations of Japanese kanji: A masked priming investigation |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236062398 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology |volume=66 |issue=10 |pages=2023–38 |doi=10.1080/17470218.2013.773050 |pmid=23510000 |s2cid=13845935|doi-access=free }}

Readings are categorized as either {{Nihongo|kun'yomi|訓読み|literally "meaning reading"}}, native Japanese, or {{Nihongo|on'yomi|音読み|literally "sound reading"}}, borrowed from Chinese. Most kanji have at least a single reading of each category, though some have only one, such as {{Nihongo||菊|kiku|"chrysanthemum", an {{translit|ja|on}}-reading}} or {{Nihongo||鰯|iwashi|"sardine", a {{translit|ja|kun}}-reading}}; Japanese-coined kanji ({{translit|ja|kokuji}}) often only have {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} readings.

Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings; the most complex common example is {{lang|ja|生}}, which is read as {{translit|ja|sei}}, {{translit|ja|shō}}, {{translit|ja|nama}}, {{translit|ja|ki}}, {{translit|ja|o-u}}, {{translit|ja|i-kiru}}, {{translit|ja|i-kasu}}, {{translit|ja|i-keru}}, {{translit|ja|u-mu}}, {{translit|ja|u-mareru}}, {{translit|ja|ha-eru}}, and {{translit|ja|ha-yasu}}, totaling eight basic readings (the first two are {{translit|ja|on}}, while the rest are {{translit|ja|kun}}), or 12 if related verbs are counted as distinct.

{{Main|On'yomi}}

The {{Nihongo||音読み|on'yomi|{{IPA|ja|oɰ̃jomi|}}, {{lit.}} "sound(-based) reading"}}, the Sino-Japanese reading, is the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the base Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. It was often previously referred to as translation reading, as it was recreated readings of the Chinese pronunciation but was not the Chinese pronunciation or reading itself, similar to the English pronunciation of Latin loanwords. There also exist kanji created by the Japanese and given an {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} reading despite not being a Chinese-derived or a Chinese-originating character. Some kanji were introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multiple {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, and often multiple meanings. Kanji invented in Japan ({{translit|ja|kokuji}}) would not normally be expected to have {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, but there are exceptions, such as the character {{Nihongo2|働}} "to work", which has the {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} "{{translit|ja|hatara(ku)}}" and the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} "{{translit|ja|dō}}", and {{Nihongo2|腺}} "gland", which has only the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} "{{translit|ja|sen}}"—in both cases these come from the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} of the phonetic component, respectively {{Nihongo2|動}} "{{translit|ja|dō}}" and {{Nihongo2|泉}} "{{translit|ja|sen}}".

{{Main|Kun'yomi}}

The {{Nihongo||訓読み|kun'yomi|{{IPA|ja|kɯɰ̃jomi|}}, {{abbr|lit.|literally}} "meaning reading"}}, the native reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or {{translit|ja|yamato kotoba}}, that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. As with {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, there can be multiple {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} for the same kanji, and some kanji have no {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} at all.

{{Main|Ateji}}

{{Nihongo||当て字|Ateji}} are characters used only for their sounds. In this case, pronunciation is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning (broadly a form of {{translit|ja|ateji}}, narrowly {{translit|ja|jukujikun}}). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are also special cases where the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading.

The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree in Chinese varieties, where there are literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters—borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are not related). They thus form doublets and are generally similar, analogous to different {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into Japanese.

Longer readings exist for non-{{translit|ja|Jōyō}} characters and non-kanji symbols, where a long gairaigo word may be the reading (this is classed as {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}—see single character gairaigo, below)—the character {{Nihongo2|糎}} has the seven {{translit|ja|kana}} reading {{lang|ja-Kana|センチメートル}} {{translit|ja|senchimētoru}} "centimeter", though it is generally written as "cm" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space); another common example is '%' (the percent sign), which has the five kana reading {{lang|ja-Kana|パーセント}} {{translit|ja|pāsento}}.

File:Jūbako.jpg

File:Pail,yutou,soba-yu,katori-city,japan.JPG

There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture of {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} and {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}; these may be considered hybrid words. Readings in which the first kanji is on'yomi and the second is kun'yomi are classified as {{Nihongo||重箱読み|jūbakoyomi|multi-layered food box reading}}, while kun-on words are classified as {{Nihongo||湯桶読み|yutōyomi|hot liquid pail reading}}. The words jūbako and yutō are themselves examples of the reading patterns they represent (they are autological words). Other examples include {{nihongo||場所|basho|"place", {{translit|ja|kun-on}}}}, {{nihongo||金色|kin'iro|"golden", {{translit|ja|on-kun}}}} and {{nihongo||合気道|aikidō|the martial art Aikido", {{translit|ja|kun-on-on}}}}.

{{translit|ja|Ateji}} often use mixed readings. For instance, the city of Sapporo ({{lang|ja|サッポロ}}), whose name derives from the Ainu language and has no meaning in Japanese, is written with the {{translit|ja|on-kun}} compound {{nihongo|札幌||sapporo}} (which includes {{translit|ja|sokuon}} as if it were a purely {{translit|ja|on}} compound).

{{Nihongo|Gikun|義訓}} and {{Nihongo|jukujikun|熟字訓}} are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individual {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} or {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. From the point of view of the character, rather than the word, this is known as a {{Nihongo|nankun|難訓||"difficult reading"}}, and these are listed in kanji dictionaries under the entry for the character.

{{translit|ja|Gikun}} are other readings assigned to a character instead of its standard readings. An example is reading {{lang|ja|寒}} (meaning "cold") as {{translit|ja|fuyu}} ("winter") rather than the standard readings {{translit|ja|samu}} or {{translit|ja|kan}}, and instead of the usual spelling for {{translit|ja|fuyu}} of {{lang|ja|冬}}. Another example is using {{lang|ja|煙草}} ({{lit|smoke grass}}) with the reading {{translit|ja|tabako}} ("tobacco") rather than the otherwise-expected readings of {{translit|ja|*kemuri-gusa}} or {{translit|ja|*ensō}}. Some of these, such as for {{translit|ja|tabako}}, have become lexicalized, but in many cases this kind of use is typically non-standard and employed in specific contexts by individual writers. Aided with {{translit|ja|furigana}}, {{translit|ja|gikun}} could be used to convey complex literary or poetic effect (especially if the readings contradict the kanji), or clarification if the referent may not be obvious.

{{translit|ja|Jukujikun}} are when the standard kanji for a word are related to the meaning, but not the sound. The word is pronounced as a whole, not corresponding to sounds of individual kanji. For example, {{lang|ja|今朝}} ("this morning") is {{translit|ja|jukujikun}}. This word is not read as {{translit|ja|*ima'asa}}, the expected {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} of the characters, and only infrequently as {{translit|ja|konchō}}, the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} of the characters. The most common reading is {{translit|ja|kesa}}, a native bisyllabic Japanese word that may be seen as a single morpheme, or as a compound of {{translit|ja|ke}} (“this”, as in {{translit|ja|kefu}}, the older reading for {{lang|ja|今日}}, “today”), and {{translit|ja|asa}}, “morning”.{{cite web |date=March 26, 2006 |title=Gogen Yurai Jiten |script-title=ja:語源由来辞典 |trans-title=Etymology Derivation Dictionary |url=https://gogen-yurai.jp/kyou/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209200052/https://gogen-yurai.jp/kyou/ |archive-date=February 9, 2022 |access-date=2022-02-09 |publisher=Lookvise, Inc. |language=ja |quote= |script-quote=ja:「けふ」の「け」は、「今朝（けさ）」と同じ「け」で、「こ（此）」の意味。 |trans-quote=The {{translit|ja|ke}} in {{translit|ja|kefu}} is the same {{translit|ja|ke}} as in {{translit|ja|kesa}}, meaning "this".}} Likewise, {{lang|ja|今日}} ("today") is also {{translit|ja|jukujikun}}, usually read with the native reading {{translit|ja|kyō}}; its {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, {{translit|ja|konnichi}}, does occur in certain words and expressions, especially in the broader sense "nowadays" or "current", such as {{lang|ja|今日的}} ("present-day"), although in the phrase {{translit|ja|konnichi wa}} ("good day"), {{translit|ja|konnichi}} is typically spelled wholly with {{translit|ja|hiragana}} rather than with the kanji {{Nihongo2|今日}}.

{{translit|ja|Jukujikun}} are primarily used for some native Japanese words, such as Yamato ({{lang|ja|大和}} or {{lang|ja|倭}}, the name of the dominant ethnic group of Japan, a former Japanese province as well as ancient name for Japan), and for some old borrowings, such as {{lang|ja|柳葉魚}} ({{translit|ja|shishamo}}, literally "willow leaf fish") from Ainu, {{lang|ja|煙草}} ({{translit|ja|tabako}}, literally “smoke grass”) from Portuguese, or {{lang|ja|麦酒}} ({{translit|ja|bīru}}, literally “wheat alcohol”) from Dutch, especially if the word was borrowed before the Meiji period. Words whose kanji are {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} are often usually written as {{translit|ja|hiragana}} (if native), or {{translit|ja|katakana}} (if borrowed); some old borrowed words are also written as {{translit|ja|hiragana}}, especially Portuguese loanwords such as {{lang|ja|かるた}} ({{translit|ja|karuta}}) from Portuguese "{{lang|pt|carta}}" (English “card”) or {{lang|ja|てんぷら}} ({{translit|ja|tempura}}) from Portuguese "{{lang|pt|tempora}}" (English “times, season”),{{cn|date=February 2021}} as well as {{lang|ja|たばこ}} ({{translit|ja|tabako}}).

Sometimes, {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} can even have more kanji than there are syllables, examples being {{translit|ja|kera}} ({{lang|ja|啄木鳥}}, “woodpecker”), {{translit|ja|gumi}} ({{lang|ja|胡頽子}}, “silver berry, oleaster”),{{Cite web|url=https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/29056/how-many-possible-phonological-forms-could-be-represented-by-a-randomly-chosen-s|title=How many possible phonological forms could be represented by a randomly chosen single character?|website=japanese.stackexchange.com|access-date=2017-07-15|archive-date=June 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622083908/https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/29056/how-many-possible-phonological-forms-could-be-represented-by-a-randomly-chosen-s|url-status=live}} and {{translit|ja|Hozumi}} ({{lang|ja|八月朔日}}, a surname).{{Cite web|url=http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/names-for-people.html|title=How do Japanese names work?|website=www.sljfaq.org|language=en|access-date=2017-11-14|archive-date=June 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622111518/https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/names-for-people.html|url-status=live}} This phenomenon is observed in animal names that are shortened and used as suffixes for zoological compound names, for example when {{lang|ja|黄金虫}}, normally read as {{translit|ja|koganemushi}}, is shortened to {{translit|ja|kogane}} in {{lang|ja|黒黄金虫}} {{translit|ja|kurokogane}}, although zoological names are commonly spelled with katakana rather than with kanji. Outside zoology, this type of shortening only occurs on a handful of words, for example {{lang|ja|大元帥}} {{translit|ja|daigen(sui)}}, or the historical male name suffix {{lang|ja|右衛門}} {{translit|ja|-emon}}, which was shortened from the word {{translit|ja|uemon}}.

The kanji compound for {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} is often idiosyncratic and created for the word, and there is no corresponding Chinese word with that spelling. In other cases, a kanji compound for an existing Chinese word is reused, where the Chinese word and {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} may or may not be used in Japanese. For example, {{lang|ja|馴鹿}} (“reindeer”) is {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} for {{translit|ja|tonakai}}, from Ainu, but the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} reading of {{translit|ja|junroku}} is also used. In some cases, Japanese coinages have subsequently been borrowed back into Chinese, such as {{lang|ja|鮟鱇}} ({{translit|ja|ankō}}, “monkfish”).

The underlying word for {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} is a native Japanese word or foreign borrowing, which either does not have an existing kanji spelling (either {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} or {{translit|ja|ateji}}) or for which a new kanji spelling is produced. Most often the word is a noun, which may be a simple noun (not a compound or derived from a verb), or may be a verb form or a fusional pronunciation. For example, the word {{lang|ja|相撲}} ({{translit|ja|sumō}}, “sumo”) is originally from the verb {{lang|ja|争う}} ({{translit|ja|sumau}}, “to vie, to compete”), while {{lang|ja|今日}} ({{translit|ja|kyō}}, “today”) is fusional (from older {{translit|ja|ke}}, “this” + {{translit|ja|fu}}, “day”).

In rare cases, {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} is also applied to inflectional words (verbs and adjectives), in which case there is frequently a corresponding Chinese word. The most common example of an inflectional {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} is the adjective {{lang|ja|可愛い}} ({{translit|ja|kawai-i}}, “cute”), originally {{translit|ja|kawafayu-i}}; the word {{Nihongo||{{linktext|可愛}}}} is used in Chinese, but the corresponding {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} is not used in Japanese. By contrast, "appropriate" can be either {{lang|ja|相応しい}} ({{translit|ja|fusawa-shii}}, as {{translit|ja|jukujikun}}) or {{lang|ja|相応}} ({{translit|ja|sōō}}, as {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}). Which reading to use can be discerned by the presence or absence of the {{translit|ja|-shii}} ending ({{translit|ja|okurigana}}). A common example of a verb with {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} is {{lang|ja|流行る}} ({{translit|ja|haya-ru}}, “to spread, to be in vogue”), corresponding to {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} {{lang|ja|流行}} ({{translit|ja|ryūkō}}). A sample {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} deverbal (noun derived from a verb form) is {{lang|ja|強請}} ({{translit|ja|yusuri}}, “extortion”), from {{lang|ja|強請る}} ({{translit|ja|yusu-ru}}, “to extort”), spelling from {{lang|ja|強請}} ({{translit|ja|kyōsei}}, “extortion”). Note that there are also compound verbs and, less commonly, compound adjectives, and while these may have multiple kanji without intervening characters, they are read using the usual {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. Examples include {{lang|ja|面白い}} ({{translit|ja|omo-shiro-i}}, “interesting”, literally “face + white”) and {{lang|ja|狡賢い}} ({{translit|ja|zuru-gashiko-i}}, “sly”, {{Lit|}} “cunning, crafty + clever, smart”).

Typographically, the {{translit|ja|furigana}} for {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} are often written so they are centered across the entire word, or for inflectional words over the entire root—corresponding to the reading being related to the entire word—rather than each part of the word being centered over its corresponding character, as is often done for the usual phono-semantic readings.

Broadly speaking, {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} can be considered a form of {{translit|ja|ateji}}, though in narrow usage, "{{translit|ja|ateji}}" refers specifically to using characters for sound and not meaning (sound-spelling), whereas "{{translit|ja|jukujikun}}" refers to using characters for their meaning and not sound (meaning-spelling). Many {{translit|ja|jukujikun}} (established meaning-spellings) began as {{translit|ja|gikun}} (improvised meaning-spellings). Occasionally, a single word will have many such kanji spellings. An extreme example is {{nihongo|||hototogisu|lesser cuckoo}}, which may be spelt in many ways, including {{lang|ja|杜鵑}}, {{lang|ja|時鳥}}, {{lang|ja|子規}}, {{lang|ja|不如帰}}, {{lang|ja|霍公鳥}}, {{lang|ja|蜀魂}}, {{lang|ja|沓手鳥}}, {{lang|ja|杜宇}},{{lang|ja|田鵑}}, {{lang|ja|沓直鳥}}, and {{lang|ja|郭公}}—many of these variant spellings are particular to haiku poems.

In some rare cases, kanji may have a reading borrowed from a modern foreign language (gairaigo), though usually gairaigo are written in {{translit|ja|katakana}}. Notable examples include {{nihongo||頁、ページ|pēji|page}}, {{nihongo||釦／鈕、ボタン|botan|button}}, {{nihongo||零、ゼロ|zero|zero}}, and {{nihongo||米、メートル|mētoru|meter}}. These are classed as {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}, because the character is used for its meaning—the kun'yomi label may sometimes be misleading, since most kun'yomi are native Japanese readings. The readings are also rendered in {{translit|ja|katakana}}, unlike the usual {{translit|ja|hiragana}} for native {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. Note that most of these characters are for units, particularly SI units, in many cases using new characters ({{translit|ja|kokuji}}) coined during the Meiji period, such as {{nihongo||粁、キロメートル|kiromētoru|kilometer, {{Nihongo2|米}} "meter" + {{Nihongo2|千}} "thousand"}}.

{{Main|Nanori}}

Some kanji also have lesser-known readings called {{Nihongo||名乗り|nanori}}, which are mostly used for names (often given names) and, in general, are closely related to the {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. Place names sometimes also use {{translit|ja|nanori}} or, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere.

Although there are general rules for when to use {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} and when to use {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}, many kanji have multiple on- or kun-readings, and the language is littered with exceptions; how a character was meant to be read is sometimes ambiguous even to native speakers (this is especially true for names, both of people and places).

A single kanji followed by {{translit|ja|okurigana}} ({{translit|ja|hiragana}} forming part of a word)—such as the inflectable suffixes forming native verbs and adjectives like 赤い (akai; red) and 見る (miru; to see)—always indicates {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. {{translit|ja|Okurigana}} can indicate which {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} to use, as in {{Nihongo2|食べる}} ({{translit|ja|ta-beru}}) versus {{Nihongo2|食う}} ({{translit|ja|ku-u}}), both meaning "(to) eat", but this is not always sufficient, as in {{Nihongo2|開く}}, which may be read as {{translit|ja|a-ku}} or {{translit|ja|hira-ku}}, both meaning "(to) open".

{{anchor|jukugo|multi-kanji compound words}}

Kanji compounds ({{translit|ja|jukuji}}), especially yojijukugo, usually, but not always, use {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, usually (but not always) {{translit|ja|kan-on}}. In {{Nihongo||解毒|ge-doku|detoxification, anti-poison}}, 解 is read with its kan-on reading instead of its more common go-on reading, {{translit|ja|kai}}. Exceptions are common—{{Nihongo2|情報}} ({{translit|ja|jōhō}}; information), for example, is go-kan. {{Nihongo2|牛肉}} ({{translit|ja|gyū-niku}}; beef) and {{Nihongo2|羊肉}} ({{translit|ja|yō-niku}}; mutton) have {{translit|ja|on-on}} readings, but {{Nihongo2|豚肉}} ({{translit|ja|buta-niku}}; pork) and {{Nihongo2|鶏肉}} ({{translit|ja|tori-niku}}; poultry) have {{translit|ja|kun-on}} readings. Examples of fully kun'yomi compounds include {{Nihongo2|手紙}} ({{translit|ja|tegami}}; letter), {{Nihongo2|日傘}} ({{translit|ja|higasa}}; parasol), and the infamous {{Nihongo2|神風}} ({{translit|ja|kamikaze}}; divine wind). Some kun'yomi compounds have non-inflective {{translit|ja|okurigana}}, such as {{Nihongo2|唐揚げ}} ({{translit|ja|karaage}}; Chinese-style fried chicken) and {{Nihongo2|折り紙}} ({{translit|ja|origami}}); many can also be written with the {{translit|ja|okurigana}} omitted.

Kanji in isolation are typically read using their {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}; exceptions include the on'yomi {{Nihongo2|愛}} ({{translit|ja|ai}}; love), {{Nihongo2|禅}} ({{translit|ja|Zen}}), and {{Nihongo2|点}} ({{translit|ja|ten}}; mark, dot). Most of these on'yomi cases involve kanji that have no {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. For kanji with multiple common isolated readings, such as {{Nihongo2|金}}, which may be read as {{translit|ja|kin}} (gold) or {{translit|ja|kane}} (money, metal), only context can determine the intended reading.

The isolated kanji versus compound distinction gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations. Alone, {{Nihongo2|北}} (north) and {{Nihongo2|東}} (east) use the {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} {{translit|ja|kita}} and {{translit|ja|higashi}}, but {{Nihongo2|北東}} (northeast), uses the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} {{translit|ja|hokutō}}. Inconsistencies also occur between compounds; {{Nihongo2|生}} is read as {{translit|ja|sei}} in {{Nihongo2|先生}} ({{translit|ja|sensei}}; teacher) but as {{translit|ja|shō}} in {{Nihongo2|一生}} ({{translit|ja|isshō}}; one's whole life) (both on'yomi).

Multiple readings have given rise to a number of homographs, in some cases having different meanings depending on how they are read. One example is {{Nihongo2|上手}}, which can be read in three different ways: {{translit|ja|jōzu}} (skilled), {{translit|ja|uwate}} (upper part), or {{translit|ja|kamite}} (stage left/house right). In addition, {{Nihongo2|上手い}} has the reading {{translit|ja|umai}} (skilled). More subtly, {{Nihongo2|明日}} has three different readings, all meaning "tomorrow": {{translit|ja|ashita}} (casual), {{translit|ja|asu}} (polite), and {{translit|ja|myōnichi}} (formal).

Conversely, some terms are homophonous but not homographic, and thus ambiguous in speech but not in writing. To remedy this, alternate readings may be used for confusable words. For example, {{Nihongo2|私立}} (privately established, esp. school) and {{Nihongo2|市立}} (municipal) are both normally pronounced {{translit|ja|shi-ritsu}}; in speech these may be distinguished by the alternative pronunciations {{translit|ja|watakushi-ritsu}} and {{translit|ja|ichi-ritsu}}. More informally, in legal jargon {{Nihongo2|前文}} (preamble) and {{Nihongo2|全文}} (full text) are both pronounced {{translit|ja|zen-bun}}, so {{Nihongo2|前文}} may be pronounced {{translit|ja|mae-bun}} for clarity, as in "Have you memorized the preamble [not 'whole text'] of the constitution?". As in these examples, this is primarily done using a {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} for one character in a normally {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} term.

Certain words take different readings depending on whether the context concerns legal matters or not. For example:

In some instances where even context cannot easily provide clarity for homophones, alternative readings or mixed readings can be used instead of regular readings to avoid ambiguity. For example:

There are also cases where the words are technically heterophones, but they have similar meanings and pronunciations, therefore liable to mishearing and misunderstanding.

Several famous place names, including those of Japan itself ({{Nihongo2|日本}} {{translit|ja|Nihon}} or sometimes {{translit|ja|Nippon}}), those of some cities such as Tokyo ({{Nihongo2|東京}} {{translit|ja|Tōkyō}}) and Kyoto ({{Nihongo2|京都}} {{translit|ja|Kyōto}}), and those of the main islands Honshu ({{Nihongo2|本州}} {{translit|ja|Honshū}}), Kyushu ({{Nihongo2|九州}} {{translit|ja|Kyūshū}}), Shikoku ({{Nihongo2|四国}} {{translit|ja|Shikoku}}), and Hokkaido ({{Nihongo2|北海道}} {{translit|ja|Hokkaidō}}) are read with {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}; however, the majority of Japanese place names are read with {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}: {{Nihongo2|大阪}} {{translit|ja|Ōsaka}}, {{Nihongo2|青森}} {{translit|ja|Aomori}}, {{Nihongo2|箱根}} {{translit|ja|Hakone}}. Names often use characters and readings that are not in common use outside of names. When characters are used as abbreviations of place names, their reading may not match that in the original. The Osaka ({{Nihongo2|大阪}}) and Kobe ({{Nihongo2|神戸}}) baseball team, the Hanshin ({{Nihongo2|阪神}}) Tigers, take their name from the {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} of the second kanji of {{translit|ja|Ōsaka}} and the first of {{translit|ja|Kōbe}}. The name of the Keisei ({{Nihongo2|京成}}) railway line—linking Tokyo ({{Nihongo2|東京}}) and Narita ({{Nihongo2|成田}})—is formed similarly, although the reading of {{Nihongo2|京}} from {{Nihongo2|東京}} is {{translit|ja|kei}}, despite {{translit|ja|kyō}} already being an {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} in the word {{translit|ja|Tōkyō}}.

Japanese family names are also usually read with {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}: {{Nihongo2|山田}} {{translit|ja|Yamada}}, {{Nihongo2|田中}} {{translit|ja|Tanaka}}, {{Nihongo2|鈴木}} {{translit|ja|Suzuki}}. Japanese given names often have very irregular readings. Although they are not typically considered {{translit|ja|jūbako}} or {{translit|ja|yutō}}, they often contain mixtures of {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}, {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} and {{translit|ja|nanori}}, such as {{Nihongo2|大助}} {{translit|ja|Daisuke}} [{{translit|ja|on-kun}}], {{Nihongo2|夏美}} {{translit|ja|Natsumi}} [{{translit|ja|kun-on}}]. Being chosen at the discretion of the parents, the readings of given names do not follow any set rules, and it is impossible to know with certainty how to read a person's name without independent verification. Parents can be quite creative, and rumours abound of children called {{Nihongo2|地球}} {{translit|ja|Āsu}} ("Earth") and {{Nihongo2|天使}} {{translit|ja|Enjeru}} ("Angel"); neither are common names, and have normal readings {{translit|ja|chikyū}} and {{translit|ja|tenshi}} respectively. Some common Japanese names can be written in multiple ways, e.g., Akira can be written as {{Nihongo2|亮}}, {{Nihongo2|彰}}, {{Nihongo2|明}}, {{Nihongo2|顕}}, {{Nihongo2|章}}, {{Nihongo2|聴}}, {{Nihongo2|光}}, {{Nihongo2|晶}}, {{Nihongo2|晄}}, {{Nihongo2|彬}}, {{Nihongo2|昶}}, {{Nihongo2|了}}, {{Nihongo2|秋良}}, {{Nihongo2|明楽}}, {{Nihongo2|日日日}}, {{Nihongo2|亜紀良}}, {{Nihongo2|安喜良}} and many other characters and kanji combinations not listed,{{Cite web|title = ateji Archives|url = http://www.tofugu.com/tag/ateji/|website = Tofugu|access-date = 2016-02-18|language = en-US|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151225050755/http://www.tofugu.com/tag/ateji|archive-date = December 25, 2015|url-status = dead}} Satoshi can be written as {{Nihongo2|聡}}, {{Nihongo2|哲}}, {{Nihongo2|哲史}}, {{Nihongo2|悟}}, {{Nihongo2|佐登史}}, {{Nihongo2|暁}}, {{Nihongo2|訓}}, {{Nihongo2|哲士}}, {{Nihongo2|哲司}}, {{Nihongo2|敏}}, {{Nihongo2|諭}}, {{Nihongo2|智}}, {{Nihongo2|佐登司}}, {{Nihongo2|總}}, {{Nihongo2|里史}}, {{Nihongo2|三十四}}, {{Nihongo2|了}}, {{Nihongo2|智詞}}, etc.,{{Cite web|url=http://jisho.org/search/Satoshi|title=Satoshi|website=jisho.org|access-date=2016-03-05|archive-date=April 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419090542/http://jisho.org/search/satoshi|url-status=live}} and Haruka can be written as {{Nihongo2|遥}}, {{Nihongo2|春香}}, {{Nihongo2|晴香}}, {{Nihongo2|遥香}}, {{Nihongo2|春果}}, {{Nihongo2|晴夏}}, {{Nihongo2|春賀}}, {{Nihongo2|春佳}}, and several other possibilities.{{Cite web|url=http://jisho.org/search/Haruka|title=Haruka|website=jisho.org|access-date=2016-03-05|archive-date=March 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302030038/http://jisho.org/search/haruka|url-status=live}} Common patterns do exist, however, allowing experienced readers to make a good guess for most names. To alleviate any confusion on how to pronounce the names of other Japanese people, most official Japanese documents require Japanese to write their names in both {{translit|ja|kana}} and kanji.

Chinese place names and Chinese personal names appearing in Japanese texts, if spelled in kanji, are almost invariably read with {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}. Especially for older and well-known names, the resulting Japanese pronunciation may differ widely from that used by modern Chinese speakers. For example, Mao Zedong's name is pronounced as {{nihongo||毛沢東|Mō Takutō}} in Japanese, and the name of the legendary Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is pronounced {{translit|ja|Son Gokū}} ({{Nihongo2|孫悟空}}) in Japanese.

Today, Chinese names that are not well known in Japan are often spelled in {{translit|ja|katakana}} instead, in a form much more closely approximating the native Chinese pronunciation. Alternatively, they may be written in kanji with {{translit|ja|katakana}} {{translit|ja|furigana}}. Many such cities have names that come from non-Chinese languages like Mongolian or Manchu. Examples of such not-well-known Chinese names include:

Internationally renowned Chinese-named cities tend to imitate the older English pronunciations of their names, regardless of the kanji's {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} or the Mandarin or Cantonese pronunciation, and can be written in either {{translit|ja|katakana}} or kanji. Examples include:

Notes:

• Guangzhou, the city, is pronounced {{translit|ja|Kōshū}}, while Guangdong, its province, is pronounced {{translit|ja|Kanton}}, not {{translit|ja|*Kōtō}} (in this case, opting for a {{translit|ja|tō-on}} reading rather than the usual {{translit|ja|kan-on}} reading).
• Hangzhou (expected {{translit|ja|Kōshū}}) is often pronounced {{translit|ja|Kuishū}} to disambiguate with Guangzhou.
• Kaohsiung was originally pronounced {{translit|ja|Takao}} (or similar) in Hokkien and Japanese. It received this written name (kanji/Chinese) from Japanese, and later its spoken Mandarin name from the corresponding characters. The English name "Kaohsiung" derived from its Mandarin pronunciation. Today it is pronounced either {{lang|ja|カオシュン}} or {{lang|ja|タカオ}} in Japanese.
• Taipei is generally pronounced {{lang|ja|たいほく}} in Japanese.

In some cases the same kanji can appear in a given word with different readings. Normally this occurs when a character is duplicated and the reading of the second character has voicing ({{translit|ja|rendaku}}), as in {{lang|ja|人人}} {{translit|ja|hito-bito}} "people" (more often written with the iteration mark as {{Nihongo2|人々}}), but in rare cases the readings can be unrelated, as in {{nihongo||跳び跳ねる|tobi-haneru|"hop around", more often written {{lang|ja|飛び跳ねる}}}}.

Because of the ambiguities involved, kanji sometimes have their pronunciation for the given context spelled out in ruby characters known as {{translit|ja|furigana}}, (small {{translit|ja|kana}} written above or to the right of the character, e.g. {{ruby-ja|振仮名|ふりがな}}) or {{translit|ja|kumimoji}} (small {{translit|ja|kana}} written in-line after the character). This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners. It is also used in newspapers and {{translit|ja|manga}} for rare or unusual readings, or for situations like the first time a character's name is given, and for characters not included in the officially recognized set of essential kanji. Works of fiction sometimes use {{translit|ja|furigana}} to create new "words" by giving normal kanji non-standard readings, or to attach a foreign word rendered in {{translit|ja|katakana}} as the reading for a kanji or kanji compound of the same or similar meaning.

Conversely, specifying a given kanji, or spelling out a kanji word—whether the pronunciation is known or not—can be complicated, due to the fact that there is not a commonly used standard way to refer to individual kanji (one does not refer to "kanji #237"), and that a given reading does not map to a single kanji—indeed there are many homophonous words, not simply individual characters, particularly for {{translit|ja|kango}} (with {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}). It is easiest to write the word out—either on paper or tracing it in the air—or look it up (given the pronunciation) in a dictionary, particularly an electronic dictionary; when this is not possible, such as when speaking over the phone or writing implements are not available (and tracing in air is too complicated), various techniques can be used. These include giving {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}} for characters—these are often unique—using a well-known word with the same character (and preferably the same pronunciation and meaning), and describing the character via its components. For example, one may explain how to spell the word {{Nihongo||香辛料|kōshinryō|spice}} via the words {{Nihongo||香り|kao-ri|fragrance}}, {{Nihongo||辛い|kara-i|spicy}}, and {{Nihongo||飲料|in-ryō|beverage}}—the first two use the {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}, the third is a well-known compound—saying "{{translit|ja|kaori}}, {{translit|ja|karai}}, {{translit|ja|ryō}} as in {{translit|ja|inryō}}."

In dictionaries, both words and individual characters have readings glossed, via various conventions. Native words and Sino-Japanese vocabulary are glossed in {{translit|ja|hiragana}} (for both {{translit|ja|kun}} and {{translit|ja|on}} readings), while borrowings ({{translit|ja|gairaigo}})—including modern borrowings from Chinese—are glossed in {{translit|ja|katakana}}; this is the standard writing convention also used in {{translit|ja|furigana}}. By contrast, readings for individual characters are conventionally written in {{translit|ja|katakana}} for on readings, and {{translit|ja|hiragana}} for kun readings. Kun readings may further have a separator to indicate which characters are {{translit|ja|okurigana}}, and which are considered readings of the character itself. For example, in the entry for {{Nihongo2|食}}, the reading corresponding to the basic verb {{Nihongo|eat|食べる|taberu}} may be written as {{lang|ja-Kana|た.べる}} (ta.beru), to indicate that ta is the reading of the character itself. Further, kanji dictionaries often list compounds including irregular readings of a kanji.

Since kanji are essentially Chinese hanzi used to write Japanese, the majority of characters used in modern Japanese still retain their Chinese meaning, physical resemblance with some of their modern traditional Chinese characters counterparts, and a degree of similarity with Classical Chinese pronunciation imported to Japan from the 5th to 9th centuries.{{Cite journal |last=SHIMIZU |first=HIDEKO |date=2010 |title=Review of Remembering the Kanji 2: A Systematic Guide to Reading the Japanese Characters. 3rd ed.; Remembering the Kanji 3: Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for Upper-Level Proficiency. 2nd ed., JAMES W. HEISIG |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856198 |journal=The Modern Language Journal |volume=94 |issue=3 |pages=519–521 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-4781.2010.01077.x |jstor=40856198 |issn=0026-7902 |access-date=December 8, 2022 |archive-date=December 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208035954/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856198 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Nevertheless, after centuries of development, there is a notable number of kanji used in modern Japanese which have different meaning from hanzi used in modern Chinese. Such differences are the result of:

• the use of characters created in Japan,
• characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese, and
• post-World War II simplifications ({{translit|ja|shinjitai}}) of the character.

Likewise, the process of character simplification in mainland China since the 1950s has resulted in the fact that Japanese speakers who have not studied Chinese may not recognize some simplified characters.

{{Main|Kokuji}}

In addition to unique Japanese renditions of existing Chinese characters, there also exist kanji that were invented in Japan; these may be referred to as {{nihongo||国字|kokuji|national characters}} or {{nihongo||和製漢字|wasei kanji|Japanese-made kanji}}. They are primarily formed by combining existing components in unique ways, as is typical for Chinese characters. The Jōyō list contains about 9 kokuji, of which the most commonly used is 働 (dō; work) used in the fundamental verb 働く (hataraku; to work). It is formed from the 'person' radical 亻 plus 動 (movement). Some kokuji, including 働, have entered the Chinese language.

The term kokuji may also refer to Chinese characters coined in other (non-Chinese) countries; the corresponding phenomenon in Korea is called {{translit|ko|gukja}} ({{Korean|hangul=국자|hanja=國字|}}; national characters); there are however far fewer Korean-coined characters than Japanese-coined ones. Other languages using the Chinese family of scripts sometimes have far more extensive systems of native characters, most significantly Vietnamese {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}}, which comprises over 20,000 characters used throughout traditional Vietnamese writing, and Zhuang sawndip, which comprises over 10,000 characters, which are still in use.

In addition to {{translit|ja|kokuji}}, there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese that are different from their original Chinese meanings. These are not considered {{translit|ja|kokuji}} but are instead called {{translit|ja|kok{{zwnj}}kun}} ({{Nihongo2|国訓}}) and include characters such as the following:

{{More citations needed section|date=March 2022}}

{{Main|Chinese character classification}}

Han-dynasty scholar Xu Shen, in his 2nd-century dictionary {{translit|ja|Shuowen Jiezi}}, classified Chinese characters into six categories ({{zh|c=六書}} {{translit|cmn|liùshū}}, Japanese: {{Nihongo2|六書}} {{translit|ja|rikusho}}). The traditional classification is still taught but is problematic and is no longer the focus of modern lexicographic practice, as some categories are not clearly defined, nor are they mutually exclusive: the first four refer to structural composition, while the last two refer to usage.{{Cite journal |last1=Yamashita |first1=Hiroko |last2=Maru |first2=Yukiko |date=2000 |title=Compositional Features of Kanji for Effective Instruction |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/489552 |journal=The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=159–178 |doi=10.2307/489552 |jstor=489552 |issn=0885-9884 |access-date=December 2, 2022 |archive-date=December 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202114943/https://www.jstor.org/stable/489552 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}

{{translit|ja|Shōkei}} (Mandarin: {{translit|cmn|xiàngxíng}}) characters are pictographic sketches of the object they represent. For example, {{Nihongo2|目}} is an eye, while {{Nihongo2|木}} is a tree. The current forms of the characters are very different from the originals, though their representations are more clear in oracle bone script and seal script. These pictographic characters make up only a small fraction of modern characters.

{{translit|ja|Shiji}} (Mandarin: {{translit|cmn|zhǐshì}}) characters are ideographs, often called "simple ideographs" or "simple indicatives" to distinguish them and tell the difference from compound ideographs (below). They are usually simple graphically and represent an abstract concept such as {{Nihongo2|上}} "up" or "above" and {{Nihongo2|下}} "down" or "below". These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

{{translit|ja|Kaii}} (Mandarin: {{translit|cmn|huìyì}}) characters are compound ideographs, often called "compound indicatives", "associative compounds", or just "ideographs". These are usually a combination of pictographs that combine semantically to present an overall meaning. An example of this type is {{Nihongo2|休}} (rest) from {{Nihongo2|亻}} (person radical) and {{Nihongo2|木}} (tree). Another is the {{translit|ja|kokuji}} {{Nihongo2|峠}} (mountain pass) made from {{Nihongo2|山}} (mountain), {{Nihongo2|上}} (up) and {{Nihongo2|下}} (down). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

{{translit|ja|Keisei}} (Mandarin: {{translit|cmn|xíngshēng}}) characters are phono-semantic or radical-phonetic compounds, sometimes called "semantic-phonetic", "semasio-phonetic", or "phonetic-ideographic" characters, are by far the largest category, making up about 90% of the characters in the standard lists; however, some of the most frequently used kanji belong to one of the three groups mentioned above, so {{translit|ja|keisei moji}} will usually make up less than 90% of the characters in a text. Typically they are made up of two components, one of which (most commonly, but by no means always, the left or top element) suggests the general category of the meaning or semantic context, and the other (most commonly the right or bottom element) approximates the pronunciation. The pronunciation relates to the original Chinese, and may now only be distantly detectable in the modern Japanese {{translit|ja|on'yomi}} of the kanji; it generally has no relation at all to {{translit|ja|kun'yomi}}. The same is true of the semantic context, which may have changed over the centuries or in the transition from Chinese to Japanese. As a result, it is a common error in folk etymology to fail to recognize a phono-semantic compound, typically instead inventing a compound-indicative explanation.

{{translit|ja|Tenchū}} (Mandarin: {{translit|cmn|zhuǎnzhù}}) characters have variously been called "derivative characters", "derivative cognates", or translated as "mutually explanatory" or "mutually synonymous" characters; this is the most problematic of the six categories, as it is vaguely defined. It may refer to kanji where the meaning or application has become extended. For example, {{Nihongo2|楽}} is used for 'music' and 'comfort, ease', with different pronunciations in Chinese reflected in the two different {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, {{translit|ja|gaku}} "music" and {{translit|ja|raku}} "pleasure".

{{translit|ja|Kasha}} (Mandarin: {{translit|cmn|jiǎjiè}}) are rebuses, sometimes called "phonetic loans". The etymology of the characters follows one of the patterns above, but the present-day meaning is completely unrelated to this. A character was appropriated to represent a similar-sounding word. For example, {{Nihongo2|来}} in ancient Chinese was originally a pictograph for "wheat". Its syllable was homophonous with the verb meaning "to come", and the character is used for that verb as a result, without any embellishing "meaning" element attached. The character for wheat {{Nihongo2|麦}}, originally meant "to come", being a {{translit|ja|keisei moji}} having 'foot' at the bottom for its meaning part and "wheat" at the top for sound. The two characters swapped meaning, so today the more common word has the simpler character. This borrowing of sounds has a very long history.

{{More citations needed section|date=March 2022}}

{{see also | Japanese typographic symbols}}

The iteration mark ({{Nihongo2|々}}) is used to indicate that the preceding kanji is to be repeated, functioning similarly to a ditto mark in English. It is pronounced as though the kanji were written twice in a row, for example {{Nihongo||{{linktext|色々}}|iroiro|"various"}} and {{Nihongo||時々|tokidoki|"sometimes"}}. This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in the surname Sasaki ({{lang|ja|佐々木}}). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji {{Nihongo2|仝}}, a variant of {{Nihongo||同|dō|"same"}}.

Another abbreviated symbol is {{Nihongo2|ヶ}}, in appearance a small {{translit|ja|katakana}} {{translit|ja|ke}}, but actually a simplified version of the kanji {{Nihongo2|箇}}, a general counter. It is pronounced {{translit|ja|ka}} when used to indicate quantity (such as {{lang|ja|六ヶ月}}, {{translit|ja|rokkagetsu}} "six months") or {{translit|ja|ga}} if used as a genitive (as in {{lang|ja|関ヶ原}} {{translit|ja|sekigahara}} "Sekigahara").

The way how these symbols may be produced on a computer depends on the operating system. In macOS, typing {{Nihongo2|じおくり}} will reveal the symbol {{Nihongo2|々}} as well as {{Nihongo2|ヽ}}, {{Nihongo2|ゝ}} and {{Nihongo2|ゞ}}. To produce {{Nihongo2|〻}}, type {{Nihongo2|おどりじ}}. Under Windows, typing {{Nihongo2|くりかえし}} will reveal some of these symbols, while in Google IME, {{Nihongo2|おどりじ}} may be used.

Kanji, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by conventions such as those used for the Latin script, are often collated using the traditional Chinese radical-and-stroke sorting method. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are called radicals. Characters are grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. For example, the kanji character {{Nihongo2|桜}}, meaning "cherry", is sorted as a ten-stroke character under the four-stroke primary radical {{lang|ja|木}} meaning "tree". When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation.

Other kanji sorting methods, such as the SKIP system, have been devised by various authors.

Modern general-purpose Japanese dictionaries (as opposed to specifically character dictionaries) generally collate all entries, including words written using kanji, according to their {{translit|ja|kana}} representations (reflecting the way they are pronounced). The {{translit|ja|gojūon}} ordering of {{translit|ja|kana}} is normally used for this purpose.

File:3002_Kanji.svg, with kyo-iku kanji color-coded by grade level]]

Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn 1,026 basic kanji, the kyōiku kanji, before finishing the sixth grade. The order in which these characters are learned is fixed. The {{translit|ja|kyōiku}} kanji list is a subset of a larger list, originally of 1,945 kanji and extended to 2,136 in 2010, known as the jōyō kanji required for the level of fluency necessary to read newspapers and literature in Japanese. This larger list of characters is to be mastered by the end of the ninth grade.Halpern, J. (2006) The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary. {{ISBN|1568364075}}. p. 38a. Schoolchildren learn the characters by repetition and radical.

Students studying Japanese as a foreign language are often required by a curriculum to acquire kanji without having first learned the vocabulary associated with them. Strategies for these learners vary from copying-based methods to mnemonic-based methods such as those used in James Heisig's series Remembering the Kanji. Other textbooks use methods based on the etymology of the characters, such as Mathias and Habein's The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji and Henshall's A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. Pictorial mnemonics, as in the text Kanji Pict-o-graphix by Michael Rowley, are also seen.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation provides the {{translit|ja|Kanji kentei}} ({{Nihongo2|日本漢字能力検定試験}} {{translit|ja|Nihon kanji nōryoku kentei shiken}}; "Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude"), which tests the ability to read and write kanji. The highest level of the {{translit|ja|Kanji kentei}} tests about six thousand kanji.{{Cite book|last=Rose|first=Heath|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDU8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129|title=The Japanese Writing System: Challenges, Strategies and Self-regulation for Learning Kanji|date=2017-06-05|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn=978-1-78309-817-0|pages=129–130|language=en|access-date=December 19, 2021|archive-date=May 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501062642/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDU8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129|url-status=live}}

{{clear}}

• Chinese influence on Japanese culture
• Braille kanji
• Hanja (Korean equivalent)
• Chữ Hán (Vietnamese equivalent)
• Han unification
• Chinese family of scripts
• Japanese script reform
• Japanese typefaces ({{translit|ja|shotai}})
• Japanese writing system
• Kanji of the year
• List of kanji by stroke count
• Radical (Chinese character)
• Stroke order
• Table of kanji radicals
• {{translit|ja|Rōmaji}} – method of writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet
• Cangjie – legendary inventor of Chinese characters

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book|title=The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy|last=DeFrancis|first=John|publisher=Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press|year=1990|isbn=0-8248-1068-6}}
• {{Cite book|title=Kanji and Kana|last1=Hadamitzky|first1=W.|last2=Spahn|first2=M.|publisher=Boston: Tuttle|year=1981}}
• {{Cite book|title=Asia's Orthographic Dilemma|last=Hannas|first=William. C.|publisher=Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8248-1892-X}}
• {{Cite book|title=Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide|chapter=Introduction to the Japanese Writing System|last=Kaiser|first=Stephen|publisher=Tokyo: Kondansha International|year=1991|isbn=4-7700-1553-4}}
• {{cite book |last=Miyake |first=Marc Hideo |author-link=Marc Hideo Miyake |title=Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction |publisher=New York, NY; London, England: RoutledgeCurzon |year=2003 |isbn=0-415-30575-6}}
• {{Cite book |title={{Nihongo2|大漢和辞典}} Dai Kan-Wa Jiten (Comprehensive Chinese–Japanese Dictionary) 1984–1986 |last=Morohashi |first=Tetsuji |publisher=Tokyo: Taishukan}}
• {{Cite book |title=Let's Learn Kanji |last1=Mitamura |first1=Joyce Yumi |publisher=Tokyo: Kondansha International |year=1997 |last2=Mitamura |first2=Yasuko Kosaka|isbn=4-7700-2068-6}}
• {{Cite book |title=Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines |last=Unger |first=J. Marshall |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-510166-9 |author-link=J. Marshall Unger}}

{{wikibooks|Japanese|Kanji}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?1B Jim Breen's WWWJDIC server] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430224622/http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?1B |date=April 30, 2023 }} used to find Kanji from English or romanized Japanese
• [http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2005/Tomoda.html Change in Script Usage in Japanese: A Longitudinal Study of Japanese Government White Papers on Labor], discussion paper by Takako Tomoda in the [http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies], August 19, 2005.
• [http://www.jisho.org/ Jisho]—Online Japanese dictionary

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090406041600/http://www.geocities.jp/qjitai/ A simple Shinjitai—Kyūjitai converter]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140823074547/http://yurara.kir.jp/material/kanji.html A practical Shinjitai—Kyūjitai—Simplified Chinese character converter]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090204033300/http://homepage3.nifty.com/jgrammar/ja/tools/tradkan0.htm A complex Shinjitai—Kyūjitai converter]
• [http://www.skycn.com/soft/44716.html A downloadable Shinjitai—Kyūjitai—Simplified Chinese character converter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210062115/http://www.skycn.com/soft/44716.html |date=February 10, 2009 }}

{{Japanese language}}

{{Kangxi Radicals}}

{{list of writing systems}}

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