Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [kyūjitai-and-shinjitai]

旧字体・新字体. Kyūjitai refers to the form of kanji that were in use prior to 1946, especially of those kanji that were later simplified. Shinjitai refers specifically to the simplified forms of certain characters as part of language reforms following World War II.

This tag is for questions relating to the evolution of kanji characters as used in Japanese before and after the language reforms and standardizations of 1946.

旧字体 (きゅうじたい) refers to the classical forms of the characters, prior to simplification.

新字体 (しんじたい) refers to the modern forms of the characters, post simplification.

As part of the kanji reforms made during this process, there are several cases where multiple classical characters got merged into a single modern character. As such, questions on appropriate historical usage are appropriate for this tag.

See also:

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Can someone identify this stamp in a Bible that allowed my roommate's Grandpa to keep it in a POW camp in WW2?

Can someone identify this stamp in a Bible that allowed my roommate's Grandpa to keep it in a POW camp in WW2? Normally Bibles would have been forbidden but apparently this stamp that was inspected regularly allowed him to keep it throughout the…
MattCom
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What's the difference between 悪 and 惡 ?

I'd like to know what the difference between 悪 and 惡 is. And also what usage you should do between both. I heard that they both mean "bad"
Rolf
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Should I use 竜 or 龍?

When writing the kanji for dragon, should I use the simplified or traditional or can I use either. My Japanese dictionary tells me that Japanese people learn both character forms in school. I know that the simplified version is more common, but I…
Michael Carroll
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On the replacing of kanji made obsolete in the 1946 reforms with similar-looking kanji.

This is my understanding but please correct me if some of my details are wrong: In 1946 the Japanese language underwent a reform and standardization process A set of 1850 kanji were made official and others more or less obsoleted A smaller subset…
hippietrail
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Are 变 and 変 the same?

Is there a difference between 变 and 変 or are they different versions of the same thing i.e. traditional/simplified?
bahrta sai
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9
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Variations in the "same" kanji, how do you know which one to use?

I've been trying to memorize some Kanji, and I've noticed that some of them seem to have different forms. So depending on what app I use, or what website I visit, the Kanji seems lightly different. As far as I can tell, they are actually the same…
Yaksha
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What’s an authoritative source for a complete list of official shinjitai kanji?

I found quite a few website tables and software conversors, but none that was both complete and authoritative. Is there any place I can find such a list in digital format? 拡張新字体 would be a nice bonus, but what I’m really interested is the official…
melissa_boiko
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Using appropriate old characters with people's names

What is the general etiquette about about using the newer characters （新字体） or even a more modern version of the old character (旧字体） when used in names? Is it generally considered rude? For example, my partner's family name is 濵 which is often…
paullb
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What's the difference between the kanji 聲 and 声?

I just started learning and I was wondering what is the difference between the kanji 聲 and 声. They both mean voice when I looked it up in the dictionary and are said the same way too. When would you use each one or are they interchangeable?
user20133
6
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噌 variants in different fonts

Due to Han unification, the same code point represents the Chinese (T/S), Japanese and Korean variants of a given character. The rendered glyph is determined by locale, lang tag (web) or similar. If a variable like this is misconfigured, it can lead…
siikamiika
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Shinjitai kanji that existed prior to simplification?

I've been doing some researching on kanji characters, and was wondering if there were cases where already-existing characters were used as the final 新字体 form of a character. To clarify, I'm not talking about cases where several kanji were blended…
Kaji
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Why is the name of the whisky "TOKI" written as 季?

Suntory has a whisky named TOKI in their portfolio. It took me a bit to find that the kanji used for this is actually 季　and has the On-Yomi　き, but can be pronounced in names as すえ or とし. Another fact I found out is that the whisky is intended for…
Quit007
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Can 亞 be a simplification of 亜?

I'm trying to translate this sport team name: 東亞学園バレㅡ部 but Google keeps correcting this to: 東亜学園バレーᅳ部 It's obviously difficult to guess which type of horizontal line is meant, but the second character is clearly printed as 亞, not 亜. Is it…
user21964
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Use of 旧字体 in Japanese names

Currently, the kanji used in registering names in Japan are restricted to those from the 常用漢字 and the 人名用漢字 lists. Since this is the case, why do some names include kanji not on the list like 澤 (for example 花澤香菜)? It's true that 澤 is the 旧字体 form of…
user12257
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Why wasn't 欒 simplified to 栾, when 戀 was simplified to 恋?

A few pre-simplification kanji (旧字体) that had the 䜌 "radical" in them were simplified such that they instead used the simpler 亦 "radical" in its place, as with 戀 to 恋, and 變 to 変. However, 欒 (as in 団欒) does not have a simplified form (新字体) that is…
senshin
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