TheJapanese script reform is the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word, which began during theMeiji period. This issue is known inJapan as thekokugo kokuji mondai (国語国字問題, national language and script problem). The reforms led to the development of the modern Japanese written language, and explain the arguments for official policies used to determine the usage and teaching ofkanji rarely used in Japan.

A misconception is held that Japanese script reform originated from theSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers during theOccupation of Japan, but in fact, a plan had already been put into place prior to the occupation. Reform efforts date back to at least 1900, and proposals to reform kanji usage had been developed in the 1920s.^[1]

In the 1900 kana usage reforms,hentaigana (old variant forms of kana) were eliminated, thoughhistorical kana orthography (dating to theHeian period, a millennium before) was retained. A separate character fornん was also prescribed; previously it had been written asむ (the same asmu) andん was a hentaigana for both these sounds.^{[citation needed]} A proposal to eliminate certain kanji from use was implemented in a number of regions and overseas territories in the 1920s, near the end of theTaishō period.

In November 1922, therinji kokugo chōsakai (臨時國語調査會,Select Committee on the Study of the Japanese Language), the precursor to theJapanese Language Council, now the Japanese Language subdivision of theAgency for Cultural Affairs, selected and approved a list of 1,962 kanji characters for daily use. This group of characters formed the basis for thetōyō kanji list, which eventually developed into the modernjōyō kanji list. In December 1923, the committee approved a set of reforms for kana usage; the prototype for the modern kana system.^[2]

The reforms made after theSecond World War have had a particularly significant impact on accepted kanji usage in the modern Japanese language.

On 12 November 1945, theYomiuri Shimbun newspaper published an editorial concerning the abolition of kanji, and on 31 March 1946, the first American Education Delegation arrived in Japan at the invitation of theSupreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) and issued its first report. The report pointed out the difficulties concerning kanji use, and advocated the use ofrōmaji, which they considered more convenient. As a result, the gradual abolition of kanji became official policy for the SCAP, and thetōyō kanji list and modern kana usage proposals were drawn up in accordance with this policy.^{[citation needed]}

Thetōyō kanji list, containing 1850 characters, was published by thecabinet on 16 November 1946 with the intention of completely abolishing the use of kanji in the future.^[3] The list reduced the number of kanji deemed appropriate for daily use, and categorized certain kanji for specific use in official publications and documents.

Prior to this reform, an attempt had already been made to standardise several kanji, known askyūjitai, with other forms, known asshinjitai, but was not conducted systematically. For new character forms, changes were only made to several characters with minimal modifications.

Another separate attempt was made to limit the number ofkanji readings, but the first list proved much too restrictive. For instance, the character for fish魚 had its readings limited togyo anduo when the most common reading,sakana, was not officially recognized by the list. These shortcomings were acknowledged in the revised list oftōyō kanji, published on 28 June 1972.

On 5 July 1956, theJapanese Language Council announced a list of substitute characters for words that contained characters not on the official list in an effort to ease the implementation oftōyō kanji. This use of alternative, common kanji in place of rarer ones was calledkakikae (書き換え) (also written askakikae (書き替え)).

Different characters for words were unified using characters from thetōyō kanji list. The list below shows some examples, with the non-tōyō kanji placed in brackets.

• 注文 (註文)chūmon (order, request)
• 遺跡 (遺蹟)iseki (historic ruins)
• 更生 (甦生)kōsei (rebirth, originally readsosei, and may be written as蘇生 to reflect the original reading)
• 知恵 (智慧)chie (wisdom)
• 略奪 (掠奪)ryakudatsu (pillage, plunder)
• 妨害 (妨碍, 妨礙)bōgai (jamming, interference)
• 意向 (意嚮)ikō (intention, idea)
• 講和 (媾和)kōwa (reconciliation, peace)
• 格闘 (挌鬭)kakutō (fighting)
• 書簡 (書翰)shokan (letter, epistle)

Jargon and other specialized words that could be written in more than one way were generally written using characters from the list.

• 骨格 (骨骼)kokkaku (skeletal structure)
• 奇形 (畸形)kikei (birth defect)

Other words that used kanji that were not included in the list were given phonetic substitutes.

• 防御 (防禦)bōgyo (defence)
• 扇動 (煽動)sendō (abet, agitate)
• 英知 (叡智)eichi (wisdom)
• 混交 (混淆)konkō (mix)
• 激高 (激昂)gekikō (excited, enraged)

For kanji compounds with characters that could not be reasonably substituted, the recommendation was to write the "missing" kanji inkana instead, a practice known asmazegaki (交ぜ書き), which is very common inthe name of chemical elements.

• 皮フ (皮膚)hifu (skin)
• イ族 (彝族)izoku (Yi people)
• フッ素 (弗素)fusso (fluorine)
• たん白質 (蛋白質)tanpakushitsu (protein)
• 憂うつ (憂鬱)yū-utsu (melancholy) andうつ病 (鬱病)utsubyō (depression)

However, the recent prevalence ofcomputers has made it easier for Japanese speakers to identify and use rarer characters, and the idea of having a list of approved characters has come under reconsideration.^{[citation needed]}Japanese media have increasingly used non-approved kanji withfurigana to aid the reader in place ofmazegaki.

On 16 February 1948, 881 of thetōyō kanji were designated to be taught during primary education, and became known as thekyōiku kanji (education kanji).

In the same year, Article 50 of thefamily register law made it illegal to name a child using characters not on the official list. When this law first came into effect, theMinistry of Justice declared that all newborn babies must be registered in thekoseki (the Japanese family registry) with a name that used onlyhiragana,katakana ortōyō kanji.^{[citation needed]} However, in 1951, an additional 92 characters were approved by the government asjinmeiyō kanji; kanji acceptable for use in names. This list was modified in 1997 to increase to a total of 285 characters. At the time, eight characters from the originaljinmeiyō kanji list were added to thejōyō kanji (daily use) list, and were removed from the group ofjinmeiyō kanji.

On 27 September 2004, another 488 kanji were approved for use in names, partly as a result of the ruling by theSapporo High Court that it was unacceptable for so many common characters to be excluded from use in names simply because they were not part of the official list. 578 characters were initially added,^{[contradictory]} though some characters unsuitable for names such as怨 (grudge, resent),痔 (haemorrhoids) and屍 (corpse) were removed as a result of public feedback.

Thetōyō kanji list, which was created as a step towards the abolition of kanji, has undergone frequent criticism by scholars. In 1958,Tsuneari Fukuda wrote an article in the magazineKoe pointing out that it was impossible to restrict kanji use, and in 1961, several prominent anti-reformists walked out of the Japanese Language Council general meeting in protest of the dominance of the phoneticists, who were always re-elected to their positions on the council.

The following year, Japanese Language Council memberTomizō Yoshida argued that the council should base their reforms on standardising the current writing system using a mixture ofkanji andkana, and in 1965,Morito Tatsuo, the then chairman of the council, announced that the complete abolition of kanji was now inconceivable and that Yoshida's suggestion would become official policy.^{[citation needed]}

On 16 November 1946,historical kana usage underwent official reform to reflect modern pronunciation asgendai kanazukai (現代かなづかい,modern kana usage). In addition, two kana,ゐ/ヰwi andゑ/ヱwe, were officially declared obsolete, as the pronunciations they represented had dropped from the language many centuries before.

Some reformers wished to eliminate kanji altogether, and have a phonetic written language only using kana, but this was decided against, and further reforms were halted.

Modern kana usage still has one or two incongruities, as reform was halted at an intermediate stage. On 1 July 1985, the government confirmed that no further reforms would be made in the near future.^{[citation needed]}

• Threeparticles maintain their historical kana form: the topic markerwa is writtenはha instead ofわ, the direction markere is writtenへhe instead ofえ and the object markero is written with the otherwise archaic kanaをwo instead ofお.
• The soundsji andzu are usually written with the kanaじ andず respectively, with two exceptions. In compound words of Japanese origin where the second element normally beginschi ortsu and isvoiced in the compound, the kanaぢ andづ are used instead. For example,鼻血hanaji (nose bleed) consists of鼻hana (nose) and血chi (blood). Aschi is written using thekanaち,hanaji is writtenはなぢ, adding adakuten to the original kana to indicate that it isvoiced. This is a form ofmorpho-phonemic orthography, to indicate that it comes from voicing aち rather than voicing aし or being an unrelatedじ.
• ぢ andづ are also used in words of Japanese origin if the preceding kana is the unvoiced form of the same character. For example, the wordsつづく (続く) andちぢむ (縮む) are written in this manner, though the correct kana usage forchijimi (the Japanese word for the Korean dishbuchimgae) isチジミ, as opposed toチヂミ, as the word is not native to the language.^[4]
• ぢ andづ are never used for words of Chinese origin. The character通 is usually readtsū, but in compounds it may be read aszū (for instance,融通yūzū (flexibility) is writtenゆうずう) with no regard to its usual pronunciation.

When reporting the lawsuits regarding cases ofMinamata disease in 1970, the non-tōyō kanji怨on, "grudge", was used to refer to the feelings of the bereaved families. As a result of this widespread coverage, this kanji was reintroduced into popular usage, which opened the door for many more kanji to be rehabilitated.^[5]

Thejōyō kanji list, consisting at that time of 1,945 characters, was published by the Japanese government in 1981 to serve as a replacement for thetōyō kanji list. This newer list was based on the oldertōyō kanji list, thoughjōyō kanji was more of a guide to kanji usage whiletōyō kanji was created to gradually eliminate kanji usage.^{[citation needed]}

Around the same time, theJapanese Industrial Standards Committee (JIS) also attempted to create a standardised kanjicharacter set for use incomputing andword processing, and to assign a uniquecharacter code to each kanji for data processing. This character set was, like thejōyō kanji, merely a subset of the thousands of documented kanji, and became known colloquially as the JIS kanji set. The character set has undergone several revisions since its inception. The first of these, officially known asJIS C 6226, or more commonly as the old JIS kanji set, was published in 1978 and contained 6802 characters. After the creation of thejōyō kanji list in 1983, the old set was expanded to contain 6877 characters, including some non-kanji characters. This is known as the new JIS kanji set, and was designated asJIS X 0208 in 1987.

Approximately 200 characters were changed from their traditional form to their simplified form in the change from the old JIS to the new JIS set, meaning that word documents written on computers using the old character set would not display the same characters when displayed on a computer that used the new character set.^{[citation needed]}

The JIS character set makes no distinction between the forms of characters, so it is not possible to distinguish between traditional and simplified forms. However, some characters, such as剣,劒, and劍, are distinguished within the character set, despite being variations of the same character.

Increased use ofkana to kanji conversion on word processors and computers during the mid-1980s brought drastic changes to the amount of Japanese written by hand. As a result, the use of kanji outside thejōyō kanji increased, reversing the prior trend of using fewer kanji. These characters were calledgaiji (lit. "outside characters")

The preface to the Japanese Language Council internal report on thejōyō kanji states that the council's decision on the forms of characters not on the approved list is pending, and will await research from each field.^[6] The new JIS character setextends kanji simplification togaiji, creating a discrepancy between the standard forms of characters used in literature and materials produced on a computer or word processor. There is pressure for the Japanese publishing industry to adopt the new JIS character set abbreviations, and the resulting variation ingaiji led the Japanese Language Council, in their final report in December 2000, to produce a list of standard forms for many of these kanji to be used as a guideline.^[7] This list is called theHyōgai kanji jitai-hyō (表外漢字字体表, lit. "Non-listed kanji form list") in Japan.

This list was compiled by researching the various gaiji forms used in printed materials, and 1022 major characters were given standard forms to be used in print type face. 22 of these characters were simplified common forms, and the abbreviated forms of threeradicals were acknowledged as permissible alternatives for these characters. However, the general policy of the list was to use traditional forms for all gaiji.

Though newspaper publishers had been firm advocates for reducing the number of kanji, the release of thegaiji list forced them to reducemazegaki in newspaper print. Subsequent issues of theKisha handobukku shinbun yōji yōgo shū (記者ハンドブック 新聞用字用語集,lit. 'Journalist handbook of newspaper character usage') tended to increase the number of permissible characters, so that formermazegaki words could be written as kanji (for example, the use of拉致 in place ofら致 or危惧 in place of危ぐ).^[citation needed] As newspapers began to use computerised typesetting, some newspapers reintroducedruby characters to indicate the reading of uncommon kanji. Though not a unified movement, there was a general trend towards increased kanji use. Other mass media organizations followed suit, and the NHK shin yōji yōgo jiten (NHK 新用字用語辞典, lit.NHK's dictionary of new character usage) also reduced the amount ofmazegaki used.

There were substantial discrepancies between thegaiji list and JIS forms, but these discrepancies were corrected in 2004 with the release ofJIS X 0213, which brought the JIS in line with the Japanese Language Council. The changes injinmeiyō kanji made by theMinistry of Justice during the same year also conformed to this standard printed form, with芦 being an exception. Computers have also moved towards a standard form following the printed character forms. However, JIS X 0213 subsumes personal place names and other proper nouns that were excluded from thegaiji list, so confusion may still result for characters like辻, where the character form differs between the printed standard and naming standard.

Jōyō kanji andjinmeiyō kanji (list as of 2000) were not included on thegaiji list, so the standards for those characters are the forms used in the jinmeiyō kanji list. Similarly,曙 and蓮, which were added to the jinmeiyō kanji list in 1990, remain the standard forms for the same reason, even though traditional forms exist for those characters (a dot in the middle of者 for曙, and a double-dotted radical for蓮). These kanji remained unchanged in the alterations made to the list in 2004. On the other hand, the characters 堵 and 逢, which were added to the jinmeiyō kanji list in 2004, do have a standard printed form with a dot in the middle of者 and two dots on the radical, and were amended accordingly in JIS X 0213.^{[citation needed]}

The use of kanji as part of Japanese orthography has been a matter of debate since at least the end of theEdo period. The use of kanji has been criticised for various reasons, the main criticisms being:

• There are too many kanji, and it is difficult to remember how to read and write them.
• TheLatin alphabet is used internationally, and using kanji separates Japan from the rest of the world. This argument was used from a technical point of view after the appearance of thetypewriter and computer.
• Processing kanji is more time-consuming on word processors and computers.
• Text that uses a mixture of kanji and kana requireskanji conversion, which is inefficient in comparison to text that only uses kana or rōmaji.

These criticisms led to arguments that reduction or eradication of kanji was a matter of national interest. The idea of abolishing kanji is often referenced toMaejima Hisoka's report titledKanji onhaishi no gi (漢字御廃止之議, lit. "The argument for the abolition of kanji"), which was submitted to theshōgunTokugawa Yoshinobu in 1866. The report argued that kanji should be abolished because the process of learning kanji was inefficient; however, in recent years the existence of this report has come into question.^{[citation needed]} Other advocates of kanji reform include the following:

• Kamo no Mabuchi,Kokuikō (国意考)

Critical of the number of kanji, and argued that kana were more convenient because they were phonetic characters like the alphabet. Notes that aFrench dictionary was written using only 50 characters, and thatDutch uses only 25 characters.

• Motoori Norinaga,Tamakatsuma (玉勝間)
• Fukuzawa Yukichi,Moji no Oshie (文字之教,lit. 'The teaching of characters') (1873)
• Maejima Hisoka,Kanji Onhaishi no Gi (漢字御廃止之儀,lit. 'The argument for the abolition of kanji') (1866)
• Nishi Amane,Yōji o motte kokugo o shosuru no ron (洋字ヲ以テ国語ヲ書スルノ論, lit. "Argument for writing Japanese in western script") (advocating the use of rōmaji)
• Suematsu Kenchō,Nihon Bunshōron (日本文章論,lit. 'Japanese syntax') (1886)
• Ueda Kazutoshi
• Mori Arinori,Nihon no Kyōiku (日本の教育,lit. 'Japanese education') (Advocating the use of English)
• Nanbu Yoshikazu (Advocated the use of rōmaji)
• Baba Tatsui,Nihongo Bunten (日本語文典,lit. 'Japanese grammar')
• Shiga Naoya,Kokugo Mondai (国語問題,lit. 'The language problem') (Advocating the use of French) (Kaizō magazine, April, 1946)

The romaji issue is still occasionally pushed by fringe writers, for example the 2011 book "Kanji is the ruin of Japanese" (漢字が日本語をほろぼす,Kanji ga Nihongo wo horobosu) byKatsuhiko Tanaka (田中克彦).

Current opinion favors the inclusion of the character碍 under the Jōyō Kanji list in order to promote the more positive word for handicapped person,障碍者, because the current word for handicapped,障害者, uses the character害, which means “damage” or “harm” (invoking pity) and has a secondary derogatory meaning of "harm or evil influence".^[8]

The current issue ofmazegaki, mixing kanji and kana to write a single word, originated with the modern reforms, particularly the introduction of thetōyō kanji list. Though the intention was to have words requiring characters that were not included on the list to be substituted with a suitable synonym, in reality, the rule was circumvented by writing these kanji in kana and makingmazegaki commonplace. Foods commonly written either just in kana or in mazegaki include醤油／しょう油 (shōyu soya sauce) and味噌 (miso). Other words commonly written asmazegaki include改ざん,破たん,隠ぺい,漏えい,覚せい剤, and団らん where the traditional forms are改竄,破綻,隠蔽,漏洩,覚醒剤, and団欒 respectively. Note that in some cases the unused kanji is very complicated (欒 has 23 strokes), while in other cases the character may be relatively simple but not on the official list (e.g.洩 has only 9 strokes). This is also common for medical terms, which often use rare kanji, as in骨粗しょう症 for骨粗鬆症.

Mazegaki is not enforced and is rarely used in literature, where traditional forms are often used, although it is common in media outlets such as newspapers and television broadcasts, since non-Jōyō kanji are not supposed to be used in these contexts. In extreme cases,jōyō kanji may be written in this way in television programmes or manga aimed at younger children or language learners – for example哺乳類 (honyūrui "mammal") asほ乳類.Mazegaki may also be used in signs, possibly as katakana – for example,皮膚科 (hifuka dermatologist) may be written as皮フ科 to improve legibility from a distance.

At the time of the introduction of thetōyō kanji list, the use ofruby characters, also known asfurigana, led to high printing costs for newspaper companies due to difficulties in typesetting, andmazegaki eliminated the need for furigana.^{[citation needed]} The resulting reduction in printing costs caused the restriction or abolition of kanji to give serious economic advantages to newspaper companies, and they became heavily involved in decisions made by the Japanese Language Council.

The use of common kanji in place of uncommon ones with the same reading is known askakikae ("changed writing"). One of the most common examples is the use of才 instead of歳, both pronouncedsai, when writing ages, as in10才 rather than10歳. Another common example is抽籤chūsen (lottery), which is often written as抽選, in addition to the mazegaki抽せん mentioned above. A rarer example is the word沈澱chinden 'settlement (of sediment)', which is a combination of the characters沈 'to sink' and澱 'sediment', so the meaning is evident from the kanji. However, in modern writing the uncommon character澱 has been substituted with殿 'Mr, lord' (omitting the 3-strokewater radical on the left), a similar character with the same pronunciation but a different meaning, yielding the combination沈殿, which could now be construed to mean 'sinking lord'.

Various hybrid simplifications also exist, using simpler non-standard characters. This is generally used in handwriting instead of print, and these characters are known asryakuji ("abbreviated characters"). For example, replacing闘 with斗, both pronouncedto, iskakikae, as these are both standard characters, but replacing闘 with the non-standard character閗 (⿵門斗:斗 contained in門) is aryakuji.

Advocates of the method explain that it makes content easier to read and will attract a wider audience, while critics argue that it is sloppy and erodes traditional culture. Further,mazegaki is criticized because in some respects it makes the text more difficult to read, as it is not clear whether thehiragana (orkatakana) are part of acontent word, or if they areokurigana or performing agrammatical function (inflection orparticles).

As they are phonetic substitutions, one of the problems with usingmazegaki andkakikae is that the original meaning of the word is not clear from the characters.Kanji have both sound and meaning, and most compounds are created by combining both (ateji usually use only sound, andjukujikun usually use only meaning, however). For example, the破 of破たんhatan means 'rip', but theたん iskanatan and does not carry any meaning. Furthermore,mazegaki may cause problems in discerning the intended reading; for example, the word真摯shinshi ("sincerity"), when written as真し, may be misconstrued as *mashi ormakotoshi, causing momentary confusion.

Although there are some examples wherekakikae uses a simpler character with a similar or related meaning and is generally not criticized, for the most part the substitutions have been purely phonetic and the practices ofmazegaki andkakikae have been criticised for legitimising sloppy Japanese and eroding part ofJapanese culture.

In 2005,Microsoft announced that the fontsMeiryo,MS Gothic, andMS Mincho in theWindows Vista operating system would comply with JIS X 0213:2004. Though this removed incompatibilities with the acceptedgaiji forms in the Windows environment, it did raise concerns that the characters would be displayed differently depending on the version of Windows system used, re-creating the problems that occurred in the shift from the old to new JIS character set. Microsoft allayed these fears by announcing that the standard Japanese fonts on Vista would beOpenType compatible, and old character forms could also be used by converting between variant forms. In actuality, theAdobe Systems applicationsInDesign,Illustrator, theJustSystems applicationIchitaro, andLibreOffice allow conversion of variant forms in software that have full support for OpenType.^[9][10] However, there are few other applications released for Windows Vista that support OpenType, andOffice 2007 does not support conversion of variant kanji forms.

• Historical kana usage
• Asahi characters
• Character encoding

• Suzuki, Yasuyuki. (1977).Kokugo Kanji Mondai no Riron. Mugi shobō,ISBN 978-4-8384-0108-6.
• Takashima, Toshio.Kanji to Nihonjin.Bungeishunjū,ISBN 978-4-16-660198-1.
• Tabei, Fumio.「完璧」はなぜ「完ぺき」と書くのか. Taishukan Shoten,ISBN 978-4-469-22179-4.
• Tsuneari, Fukuda.Watashi no Kokugo kyōshitsu.Bungeishunjū,ISBN 978-4-16-725806-1.

• Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs(in Japanese)
• Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs
• Nippon-no-Rômazi-Sya (An organization promoting the use of rōmaji)(in Japanese)
• The Society for the Romanization of the Japanese AlphabetArchived 12 December 2015 at theWayback Machine(in Japanese)