Shinjitai

Shinjitai
Japanese name
Hiragana	しんじたい
Katakana	シンジタイ
Kyūjitai	Tân tự thể
Shinjitai	Tân tự thể
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Shinjitai Kunrei-shiki Sinzitai

Shinjitai(Japanese:Tân tự thể,"new character form" )are the simplified forms ofkanjiused in Japan since the promulgation of theTōyō Kanji Listin 1946. Some of the new forms found inshinjitaiare also found insimplified Chinese characters,butshinjitaiis generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification.

Shinjitaiwere created by reducing the number of strokes inkyūjitai( "old character form" ) orseiji(Chính tự,"proper/correct characters" ),which is unsimplified kanji (usually similar totraditional Chinese characters). This simplification was achieved through a process (similar to that ofsimplified Chinese) of either replacing theonpu(Âm phù,"sound mark" ) indicating theOnreadingwith anotheronpuof the sameOnreading with fewer strokes, or replacing a complex component of a character with a simpler one.

There have been a few stages of simplifications made since the 1950s, but the only changes that became official were the changes in theJōyō Kanji Listin 1981 and 2010.

Background

The following forms were established as a result of thepost-warcharacter reforms. Many were based on widely used handwritten abbreviations (Lược tự,ryakuji) from the prewar era.

Kyuujitai	→	Shinjitai	On'yomi	Kun'yomi	Meaning
Thiết	→	Thiết	テツtetsu	くろがねkurogane	n.'iron'
Cùng	→	Cùng	ヨyo	あた(える)ata(eru)	v.'give'
Học	→	Học	ガクgaku	まな(ぶ)mana(bu)	n.'study'
Thể	→	Thể	タイtai	からだkarada	n.'body'
Đài	→	Đài	ダイdai		n.pedestal
Quốc	→	Quốc	コクkoku	くにkuni	n.'country', 'kingdom', 'nation'
Quan	→	Quan	カンkan	せきseki	n.'gate'
Viết	→	Viết	シャsha	うつ(す)utsu(su)	v.'copy'
Quảng	→	Quảng	コウkō	ひろ(い)hiro(i)	n.'expansive', 'wide'
Trạng	→	Trạng	ジョウjō		n.'(ontological) form'
Về	→	Quy	キki	かえ(る)kae(ru)	v.return
Răng	→	Xỉ	シshi	はha	n.tooth
Bước	→	Bộ	ホho フfu ブbu	ある(く)aru(ku)	v.walk
Viên	→	Yên	エンen	まる(い)maru(i)	n.'circle', 'Japanese yen';adj.'round', 'circular'
Khu	→	Khu	クku	くku	n.'(administrative) ward'

In 332 cases, characters in the new standard have fewer strokes than old forms, in 14 cases they have the same number, and in 11 cases they have one more stroke. The most drastic simplification wasThính→Sảnh,removing 20 strokes.

Unofficial simplifications

The simplification in shinjitai were only officially applied to characters in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists, with the kyūjitai forms remaining the official forms ofHyōgaiji(Biểu ngoại tự,characters not included in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists).For example, the characterCử(KYO,agaru,ageru;raise [an example]) was simplified asCử,but the character欅(keyaki;zelkovatree) which also containedCử,remained unsimplified due to its status as a Hyōgaiji.

Despite this, simplified forms of hyōgaiji do exist in Japanese character sets, and are referred to asextended shinjitai(拡 trương tân tự thể).However, they are to be seen as unofficial, a position reiterated in the National Language Council's 2000 report on Characters Not Listed in the Jōyō Kanji Table.

TheAsahi Shimbunnewspaper is thorough in its simplification of hyōgaiji, and its in-house simplifications are calledAsahi characters. For example,Co rút(KEIREN;cramp, spasm, convulsion) is simplified following the model ofKinh → kinhandLuyên → luyên.This is also said to have been done because in the age oftypewriter-based printing, more complicated kanji could not be clearly printed.

TheJapanese Industrial Standards(JIS) contain numerous simplified forms of Kanji following the model of the shinjitai simplifications, such as﨔(the simplified form of欅); many of these are included in Unicode, but are not present in most kanji character sets.

Ryakuji for handwriting use, such as the abbreviations forMôn(in simplified Chinese, this abbreviation,Môn,has become official) andĐệ(which exists inUnicodeas 㐧) are not a part of the shinjitai reforms and therefore do not carry official status.

Methods of simplifying Kanji

Adoption of grass script forms

Cursive script(also known as grass script) andsemi-cursive scriptforms of kanji were adopted as shinjitai. Examples include:

• Đồ→Đồ
• Xem → quan
• Kỳ(religion/ceremony radical) →Thị
• Ngày → ngày

Standardization and unification of character forms

Characters in which there were two or more variants were standardized under one form. The characterĐảo(TŌ,shima;island) also had the variant forms嶋(still seen in proper names) andĐảo,but only theĐảoform became standard. The sước radical was previously printed with two dots (as in the hyōgaijiSính) but was written with one (as inNói), so the written form with one dot became standard. The upper 丷 portion of the charactersNửa, tôn,andBìnhwas previously printed as tám and written 丷 (as in the aforementioned examples), but the old printed form is still seen in the hyōgaiji charactersVướngandBình.The characterThanh(SEI,SHŌ,ao;blue) was once printed asThanhbut written asThanh,so the written form became standard; the old printed form is still found in the standard form in hyōgaiji characters such asChinhandTinh,butThanhis used in some fonts.

Change of character indicatingOnreading

Characters of thekeisei moji(Hình thanh văn tự) group each contain a semantic component and a phonetic component. A choice was made to replace the phonetic parts with homophones which had fewer strokes. For example,Vâywas changed to囲,becauseViandGiếngwere homophones.

Other simplifications of this method includeTrộm → trộm, thính → sảnh, gánh → gánh.There are also colloquial handwritten simplifications (otherwise known asryakuji) based on this model, in which various non-kanji symbols are used as onpu, for exampleMa(MA;demon) [simplification: ⿸ quảng マ, quảng +マ {Katakanama}],Khánh(KEI;jubilation) [⿸ quảng K, quảng +K],Đằng(TŌ,fuji;wisteria) [⿱ thảo ト, thảo +ト {Katakanato}], andCơ(KI;machine, opportunity) [⿰ mộc キ, mộc +キ {Katakanaki}].

Adoption of variant characters

In some cases a standard character was replaced by a variant character that neither is a graphical variant nor shares an On reading, but had a historical basis for standardisation. Examples includeChứng → chứngandĐèn → đèn,replacingĐăng → chínhandĐăng → đinhrespectively. In both cases the variant character had a different meaning and reading but was adopted due to its lower stroke count anyway.

Removal of components

Some kanji were simplified by removing entire components. For example,

• The倠portion ofỨngwas removed to becomeỨng
• Nghệ→Vân
• Vại→Phữu
• Huyện→Huyện
• Ti→Mịch
• Trùng→Trùng
• Dư→Dư

Adding a stroke

In five basic cases and six derivations for a total of eleven cases, kanji were modified by adding a stroke, thereby rendering the composition more regular:

• Bước→Bộ(Thiệp→Hồ,Tần→Tần) – the bottom component becomes the commonThiếu.However, the character 捗 was not modified (Compare with the section "Inconsistencies").
• Tân → tân– similarly
• Cuốn → quyển(Vòng → quyển) – the bottom becomesMình
• Lục → lục(Lục → lục) – the top right becomesKý
• Miễn ( miễn, vãn → vãn )– formerly the middle stroke was part of the lower left stroke, now these are separate, so the lower two strokes form the commonNhi
• Ti ( bia )– formerly the small stroke at upper left ofMườiwas part of the vertical stroke inĐiền,but now it is a separate stroke.

Inconsistencies

Simplification was not carried out uniformly. Firstly, only a select group of characters (the commonjōyō kanji) was simplified, with characters outside this group (the hyōgaiji) generally retaining their earlier form. For example,Bán,TụcandĐọc(with the right-side element in the latter two not being identical, but merely graphically similar) were simplified asBán,続,andĐọc,respectively, but the hyōgaijiChuộc,NghéandĐộc,which contain the same element (𧶠), were kept in use in their unsimplified variants.

Secondly, even when a simplification was done in some characters within this group, the analogous simplification was not applied to all characters. For instance, the characterLong,meaning "dragon", was simplified in isolation and in some compound characters, but not others. The character itself was simplified toLong,as was the compound characterLang( "waterfall" ) →Lung;however, it wasnotsimplified in the charactersTập( "attack" ) andLung( "basket" ), although an extended shinjitai variant,Lộng,exists for the latter, and is used in practice rather often over the official variant, for instance inLộng tayvs.Lung tay( "gauntlet" ). Note that despite simplification long can still be found in Japanese.

Conversely, the characterQuán( "pierce" ) was not simplified, nor was the compound characterQuán( "accustomed" ), but in the other compound characterThậtit was simplified, resulting inThật( "truth" ).

Similarly,Tốt( "graduate" ) has been kept unsimplified in isolation, but in compounds has been simplified toTốt,such asSaytoTúy"drunk";Chuyênhas been simplified toVânin some characters, such asTruyềntoVân( "transmit" ), andChuyểnto転( "revolve" ), but it takes a different form in đoàn, where instead of changing the phonetic element in a regular manner to get the expected 囩 it is shortened to the meaningless component tấc, producing đoàn.

The latest 2010 jōyō kanji reform has added additional inconsistencies in this regard as in some instances radicals that were previously uniformly simplified across the jōyō set now first appeared in their traditional variants in some of the new jōyō characters; contrary to prior practice no new simplifications of characters have been carried out, likely in consideration of established JIS character set use spanning decades at this point. CompareẨm→Uống( "drink" ) to 2010 jōyōNhị( "fodder, bait" ), orTiền→銭( "coin" ) to 2010 jōyōTiên( "label" ). For the latter an analogically simplified䇳character does exist, but was likely ignored due to having no history of use in Japanese character sets. On the other hand, former extended shinjitaiDiễm( "luster" ) has been added in favor ofDiễm.

Nevertheless, the guidelines published by the Japanese government explicitly permit simplification in handwriting, and do not object to use of alternate characters in electronic text.

Simplifications in jōyō and jinmeiyō kanji

In the 2,136jōyō kanji,there are 364 pairs of simplified and traditional characters. The kanjiBiệnis used to simplify three different traditional kanji (Biện,Cánh,andBiện). Of these 364 traditional characters, 212 are still used asjinmeiyō kanjiin names. The jinmeiyō kanji List also includes 631 kanji that are not elements of the jōyō Kanji List; 18 of them have a variant. For a list of traditional and modern forms of jōyō and jinmeiyō kanji, seeKyūjitai.

Traditional characters that may cause problems displaying

Due toHan unification,someshinjitaicharacters are unified with theirkyūjitaicounterparts. Within the jōyō kanji, there are 62 characters whosekyūjitaiforms may cause problems displaying:

Hải xã miễn thử hán thần phúc luyện giả đều khí sát chúc tiết mai loại tổ cần cốc coi thự tầng chư khó lãng lan hành lang lỗ long trủng tường vũ tăng miễn ti uống than 塀 mặc hối khái ghét trừng mẫn đã nấu bia chỉ kỳ họa đột phồn xú nâu yết cẩn tân tặng dật vang tần

These characters are Unicode CJK Unified Ideographs for which the old form (kyūjitai) and the new form (shinjitai) have been unified under the Unicode standard. Although the old and new forms are distinguished under the JIS X 0213 standard, the old forms map to Unicode CJK Compatibility Ideographs which are considered by Unicode to be canonically equivalent to the new forms, and may not be distinguished by user agents. Therefore, depending on the user environment, it may not be possible to see the distinction between old and new forms of the characters. In particular, all Unicode normalization methods merge the old characters with the new ones.

蘒 (U+8612), which is not jōyō, is displayed as an (extended)shinjitaicharacter; itskyūjitaicounterpart is considered as a duplicate, and is thus not unified, even though some fonts such asSource Han Sansmay treat it as unified.

Controversies

Like one of the controversial aspects of simplified Chinese, some shinjitai were originally separate characters with different meanings. For example, the kanjiNghệ(GEI;performance, accomplishment) was simplified toVân,butVânwas originally a separate character read with the On readingUN.Many of the original characters which have become merged are no longer used in modern Japanese: for example,Dự(YO, arakaji(me);in advance) andDư(YO, ama(ri);excess) were merged withDưandDư,respectively, both archaic kanji for the first person pronoun "I". However,Vânposes a problem, in that Japan's first public library,Untei(Vân đình) (built during theNara Period), uses this character. This character also has significance in classicalJapanese literature,and Japanese history books have had to distinguish between the two by writingUNusing the old form of the thảo radical, ( thảo ).

Differences in simplification between Chinese and Japanese

Main article:Differences between Shinjitai and Simplified characters

Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan simplified their writing systems independently from each other. After World War II, poor relations prevented cooperation between the two nations. Traditional Chinese characters are still officially used in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea (as a supplement toHangul,but they are no longer used in North Korea), and by many overseas Chinese.

In Chinese, many more characters were simplified than in Japanese; some characters were simplified only in the one language, but not in the other; other characters were simplified in the same way in both languages, others in different ways. This means that those who want to learn the writing systems of both Chinese and Japanese must sometimes learn three different variations of one character: traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and modern Japanese (e.g.Long-Long-Longfor "dragon" ).

	traditional Chinese	simplified Chinese	modern Japanese	meaning
No simplification in either language Same Unicode character but appearance may vary with script; seeHan unification	Bi	Bi	Bi	sad
Same simplification in both languages	Hiến	Hiến	Hiến	offer
Simplified in Chinese only	Khẩn	Khẩn	Khẩn	tight
Simplified in Japanese only	Huệ	Huệ	Huệ	benefit
Different simplifications in Chinese and Japanese	Sạn	Sạn	Sạn	stack
Chinese simplification more drastic	Đuổi	Đuổi	駆	drive
Japanese simplification more drastic	Viên	Viên	Yên	round

See also

• Japan portal
• Languages portal

External links

• Kanji - Japanese Simplifications
• The 20th Century Japanese Writing System: Reform and Changeby Christopher Seeley

Glyph conversion

• A simple Shinjitai - Kyūjitai converter
• A practical Shinjitai - Kyūjitai - Simplified Chinese character converter
• A complex Shinjitai - Kyūjitai converter
• A downloadable Shinjitai - Kyūjitai - Simplified Chinese character converter