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Japanese punctuation (Japanese:約物,Hepburn:yakumono) includes various written marks (besidescharacters and numbers), which differ from those found inEuropean languages, as well as some not used in formal Japanese writing but frequently found in more casual writing, such asexclamation andquestion marks.
Japanese can be writtenhorizontally or vertically, and somepunctuation marks adapt to this change in direction.Parentheses, curved brackets, square quotation marks,ellipses, dashes, andswung dashes are rotated clockwise 90° when used in vertical text (see diagram).
Japanese punctuation marks are usually "full width" (that is, occupying an area that is the same as the surrounding characters).
Punctuation was not widely used in Japanese writing until translations from European languages became common in the 19th century.[1]
Various types of brackets (括弧,kakko) are used in Japanese. As in English, brackets are used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. When writing vertically, brackets are rotated clockwise ninety degrees. Each bracket occupies its own square when usinggenkō yōshi.
Marukakko (丸括弧, round brackets)
Namikakko (波括弧, wave brackets)
Kakukakko [角括弧, cornered brackets]
Sumitsukikakko (隅付き括弧, filled brackets), also known as lenticular brackets. Lenticular brackets are also used as quotation marks in the Japanese language.
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| 、 | U+3001 | 1-1-2 | 、 |
The comma (読点,tōten) is used in many contexts, principally for marking off separate elements within a sentence. In horizontal writing, the comma is placed at the bottom right of the preceding character. In vertical writing, it is placed immediately below and to the right of the last character, in a separate square if usinggenkō yōshi. In horizontally written manuscripts that contain a mixture of Japanese and Western characters, the full-widthcomma may be incorporated as well. No extra space is left after a comma.
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| ， | U+FF0C | 1-1-4 | ， |
| Symbol | Unicode name | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ゠ | KATAKANA-HIRAGANA DOUBLE HYPHEN | U+30A0 | 1-3-91 | ゠ |
| ＝ | FULLWIDTH EQUALS SIGN | U+FF1D | 1-1-65 | ＝ |
The double hyphen (二重ハイフン,nijū haifun orダブルハイフン,daburu haifun) is exclusively used intransliteration. It may act in two ways:[2]
Digitally, it is correctly represented in Unicode asU+30A0 ゠KATAKANA-HIRAGANA DOUBLE HYPHEN. However, due to visual similarity, absence from historically common encodings such asShift JIS andEUC-JP, and ease of input on a keyboard, it is often encountered written asU+FF1D ＝FULLWIDTH EQUALS SIGN.
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| … | U+2026 | 1-3-63 | … |
| ‥ | U+2025 | 1-3-63 | ‥ |
Ellipses (リーダーrīdā (leaders),点線tensen (dotted line), orてんてんten-ten ("dot dot") indicate an intentional omission or abbreviation, or a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis). The ellipsis was adopted into Japanese from European languages.
The ellipsis is often three dots or six dots (in two groups of three dots), though variations in number of dots exist. The dots can be either on thebaseline or centred between the baseline and theascender when horizontal; the dots are centred horizontally when vertical.
Other uses:
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| 。 | U+3002 | 1-1-3 | 。 |
The full stop (句点,kuten) is a small circle. In horizontal writing, the full stop is placed in the same position as it would be in English, that is, at the bottom right of the preceding character. In vertical writing, it is placed immediately below and to the right of the last character, in a separate square if usinggenkō yōshi. (Note the difference in placement with the traditional Chinese full stop, which is placed in the centre of the square.)
Unlike theEnglish full stop, it is often used to separate consecutive sentences, rather than to finish every sentence; it is frequently left out where a sentence stands alone. No extra space is used after a full stop.
In manuscripts that contain a mixture of Japanese and Western characters, the Western full stop may be incorporated as well.
Starting in the 1980s,advertising copy writers began incorporating full stops in titles and other advertising. In the 1990s, the groupMorning Musume (モーニング娘。) began using a full stop in its name, starting a fad for this usage. Other examples include the following:
Theinterpunct・ (中黒,nakaguro; "middle black") or "katakana middle dot" (as the Unicode consortium calls it) is a small dot used forinterword separation. It is also known asnakapochi,nakapotsu andnakaten. It has a fixed width that is the same as most kana characters.
Uses include:
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| 〽 | U+303D | 1-3-28 | 〽 |
The part alternation mark〽 (庵点ioriten or歌記号utakigō) is used to indicate the beginning of a song, or the beginning of the next player's part.
It was most common inNoh chanting books andRenga (linked verse). In Noh books it is used to mark the beginning of each character's (or the chorus') parts. The opening square quotation mark (「) may also be used.
kagikakko (鉤括弧, hook brackets)
Double quotation marks (二重鉤括弧,nijūkagikakko) are used to mark quotes within quotes:「...『...』...」 as well as to mark book titles (Japanese does not haveitalic type, and does not use sloping type for this purpose in Japanese). They are also sometimes used in fiction to denote text that is heard through a telephone or other device.
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⟨ ⟩ | U+3000 | 1-1-1 | 　 |
A space ( ) is any empty (non-written) zone between written sections. In Japanese, the space is referred to by the transliterated English name (スペース,supēsu). A Japanese space is the same width as aCJK character and is thus also called an "ideographic space".
In English, spaces are used forinterword separation as well as separation between punctuation and words. In normal Japanese writing, no spaces are left between words, except if the writing is exclusively inhiragana orkatakana (or with very littlekanji), in which case spaces may be required to avoid confusion.
In Japanese, a single space is often left before the first character in a new paragraph, especially when writing ongenkō yōshi (manuscript paper), and a space is left after non-Japanese punctuation marks (such as exclamation points and question marks). A space may be left between thefamily andgiven names as well. When the character is not easily available, a direct HTML equivalent is the  entity (em-space) which outputs the same fullwidth " " glyph.
A fullwidth space may be used where acolon or comma would be used in English:大和銀行 大阪支店 (Yamato Bank, Osaka Branch).
| Symbol | Unicode | JIS X 0213 | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|
| 〜 | U+301C | 1-1-33 | 〜 |
Thewave dash〜 (波ダッシュ,nami dasshu; wave dash) resembles a lengthenedtilde(FULLWIDTH TILDE), which does not exist inJIS X 0208.
Uses in Japanese include:
The Japanese versions of these punctuation marks are usuallyfull-width characters. A full-width space is usually left after such marks when writing in Japanese.[3]
The colon (コロン,koron) consists of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line. As a rule, a colon informs the reader that what follows proves, clarifies, explains, or simply enumerates elements of what is referred to before. Although not a native Japanese punctuation mark, the colon is sometimes used, especially in academic writing.
As in English, the colon is commonly used in Japanese to indicate time (4:05, instead of4時5分 or4分5秒) or for lists (日時:3月3日 4時5分 Day/time: March 3, 4:05pm).
Theexclamation point or mark (感嘆符,kantanfu), also colloquially called the びっくりマーク (bikkuri māku,lit. "surprise mark") is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and generally marks the end of a sentence. A sentence ending in an exclamation mark is either an actual exclamation ("Wow!", "Boo!"), a command ("Stop!"), or is intended to be astonishing in some way ("They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!").
While there is no exclamation point in formal Japanese, it is very commonly used, especially in casual writing,fiction and manga.
In formal Japanese, no particular symbol is used to mark interrogative sentences, which end with the normal Japanese full stop (。). However, the question mark is very commonly used, especially in casual and creative writing and in manga. It is generally known formally as疑問符 (gimonfu) or less formallyはてなマーク (hatena māku), but the katakana form of "question mark" (クエスチョンマーク orクエッションマーク) is also common.
This sign is added to the tail of a phrase, indicating it is a part of lyrics or someone is singing the phrase. It may also indicate that the speaker is talking in a sing-song voice.
