Toyo kanji
Encyclopedia
The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō (当用漢字表, "list of kanji for general use") 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. They were replaced in 1981 by the Jōyō kanji
.
Prior to World War II
, language scholars were concerned with these problems in learning fluent Japanese. One of their more radical proposals was to abolish the Chinese kanji characters entirely and make use of an entirely phonetic system. When the Ministry of Education tried to implement this reform, however, it encountered strong opposition from scientists, writers and the general public, and the idea was finally dropped.
) commonly appearing in contemporary literature, to form the tōyō kanji. This was an integral part of the postwar reform of Japanese national writing.
This was meant as a preparation for re-introducing their previous unsuccessful reform abolishing Chinese characters. Although the postwar timing meant no public debate was held on the future of the Japanese written language, the defenders of the original kanji system considered and accepted the tōyō kanji as a reasonable compromise. Since this compromise could not then be withdrawn in favour of more radical reform, discussion of kanji abolition ended. Thirty-five years passed before further reforms were brought to the Japanese written form.
The table of the pronunciations of the kanji was published in 1948 and the list of characters in 1949.
In 1981, the Ministry of Education decided to replace the tōyō kanji with a more flexible system, leading to the publication of the jōyō kanji
. This rendered the tōyō kanji obsolete.
The foreword of the document states that:
.
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...
declared "official" by the Japanese on November 16, 1946. They were replaced in 1981 by the Jōyō kanji
Joyo kanji
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...
.
History
Thousands of kanji characters were in use in various writing systems, leading to great difficulties for those learning written Japanese. Additionally, several characters had identical meanings but were written differently from each other, further increasing complexity.Prior to 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...
, language scholars were concerned with these problems in learning fluent Japanese. One of their more radical proposals was to abolish the Chinese kanji characters entirely and make use of an entirely phonetic system. When the Ministry of Education tried to implement this reform, however, it encountered strong opposition from scientists, writers and the general public, and the idea was finally dropped.
Reform
After World War II, the Ministry of Education decided to minimise the number of kanji by choosing the most commonly used kanji, along with simplified kanji (see ShinjitaiShinjitai
Shinjitai are the forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification...
) commonly appearing in contemporary literature, to form the tōyō kanji. This was an integral part of the postwar reform of Japanese national writing.
This was meant as a preparation for re-introducing their previous unsuccessful reform abolishing Chinese characters. Although the postwar timing meant no public debate was held on the future of the Japanese written language, the defenders of the original kanji system considered and accepted the tōyō kanji as a reasonable compromise. Since this compromise could not then be withdrawn in favour of more radical reform, discussion of kanji abolition ended. Thirty-five years passed before further reforms were brought to the Japanese written form.
The table of the pronunciations of the kanji was published in 1948 and the list of characters in 1949.
In 1981, the Ministry of Education decided to replace the tōyō kanji with a more flexible system, leading to the publication of the jōyō kanji
Joyo kanji
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...
. This rendered the tōyō kanji obsolete.
Applications and limitations
Rather than being a simple list of the kanji, the reform published by the Ministry for Education also contains clear rules for the use of the tōyō kanji.The foreword of the document states that:
- Tōyō kanji must be used in legal and governmental documents, newspapers, magazines and by the public in general.
- If a kanji can only be used to cover part of a word, e.g. 小さい (chiisai, 小=chii, さい=sai) then the uncovered part can only be written using hiragana.
- It is preferred to write pronouns, conjunctions, interjections, adverbs, verb auxiliaries, articles and postpositions using hiragana.
- Words of foreign origin must be written in katakanaKatakanais a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
. - In general, furiganaFuriganais a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...
should not be used. - For technical terms, tōyō kanji are preferred to other kanji, but non-tōyō kanji are preferred to hiragana or katakana.
- Proper names may use non-tōyō kanji.
- Names of animals, plants and the names and places of another country are changed to match the pronunciation of the original language in question and are written with katakana. An exception is made for the names of certain countries whose kanji are in traditional use, including China, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
- The list of characters is standardized.
Mazegaki
Because the majority of character-based words are composed of two (or more) kanji, many words were left with one character included in the Tōyō kanji, and the other character missing. In this case, the recommendation was to write the included part in kanji and the excluded part in kana, e.g. ふ頭 for 埠頭 and 危ぐ for 危惧. These words were called . This manner of writing was considered by conservative critics as characteristic of the liberals brainwashed by the policies from the American occupation, and proof of the destruction of Japanese traditional culture. Framed from a less judgemental perspective, this problem of mixed characters can be seen as due to a lack of sufficient preparation of the list, as well as insufficient thought to the implications of the simplifications; perhaps it was because of a hurried timeframe for promulgating the Tōyō kanji after the end of World War IIWorld 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...
.