Joyo kanji
Encyclopedia
The is the guide to kanji
characters announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Current jōyō kanji are those on a list of 2,136 characters issued in 2010. It is a slightly modified version of the tōyō kanji
, which was the initial list of secondary school
-level kanji standardized after World War II
.
The 2,136 kanji in the jōyō kanji consist of:
Foreign learners of Japanese also often focus their kanji studies on the jōyō kanji list.
. Additionally, the character 燈 of the tōyō kanji was replaced by the simplified form 灯.
The kanji found among the jōyō kanji but not the tōyō kanji are listed here:
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will instruct teachers to start teaching the new characters in fiscal 2012 so that junior high school students will be able to read them and high school students will be able to write them. High schools and universities will start using the characters in their entrance exams from the 2015 academic year.
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
characters announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Current jōyō kanji are those on a list of 2,136 characters issued in 2010. It is a slightly modified version of the tōyō kanji
Toyo kanji
The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters of Chinese origin in the Japanese written language. They were the kanji declared "official" by the Japanese on November 16, 1946...
, which was the initial list of secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
-level kanji standardized after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The 2,136 kanji in the jōyō kanji consist of:
- 1,006 kanji taught in primary school (these are known as the kyōiku kanjiKyoiku kanji, also known as is a list of 1,006 kanji and associated readings developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education that prescribes which kanji, and which readings of kanji, Japanese schoolchildren should learn for each year of primary school...
) - 1,130 more kanji taught in secondary school
Foreign learners of Japanese also often focus their kanji studies on the jōyō kanji list.
Changes from the tōyō kanji
The 1981 jōyō kanji list added 95 kanji not included in the tōyō kanjiToyo kanji
The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters of Chinese origin in the Japanese written language. They were the kanji declared "official" by the Japanese on November 16, 1946...
. Additionally, the character 燈 of the tōyō kanji was replaced by the simplified form 灯.
The kanji found among the jōyō kanji but not the tōyō kanji are listed here:
History
- 1923: Ministry of Education specified 1,962 kanji and 154 simplified characters.
- 1931: The former jōyō kanji was revised and 1,858 characters were specified.
- 1942: 1,134 characters as standard jōyō kanji and 1,320 characters as sub-jōyō kanji were specified.
- 1946: The 1,850 characters of tōyō kanjiToyo kanjiThe tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters of Chinese origin in the Japanese written language. They were the kanji declared "official" by the Japanese on November 16, 1946...
were adopted by law "as those most essential for common use and everyday communication". This list included 881 'basic requirement' kanji for elementary school. - 1981: The 1,945 characters of jōyō kanji were adopted, replacing the list of tōyō kanji.
- 2010: The list was revised on 30 November to include an additional 196 characters and remove 5 characters (勺, 銑, 脹, 錘, and 匁), for a total of 2,136. The 196 additional characters are:
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will instruct teachers to start teaching the new characters in fiscal 2012 so that junior high school students will be able to read them and high school students will be able to write them. High schools and universities will start using the characters in their entrance exams from the 2015 academic year.
See also
- List of jōyō kanji
- Jinmeiyō kanjiJinmeiyo kanjiThe are a set of 861 Chinese characters known as the "name kanji" in English. They are a supplementary set of characters that can be legally used in registered personal names in Japan, despite not being in that country's set of "commonly used characters" . As a rule, registered personal names may...
- HyōgaijiHyogaiji, literally characters from outside the table are Japanese kanji outside the two major lists Jōyō, which are taught in primary and secondary school, and Jinmeiyō, which are additional kanji that officially are allowed for use in personal names....
- Learning kanji
- Japanese script reformJapanese script reformThe Japanese script reform is the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word, which began during the Meiji period. This issue is known in Japan as the...