On June 7th, the Cultural Council, under the Agency for Cultural Affairs, formally submitted their proposal for the revision of the official list of kanji for common use, increasing the character count by nearly ten percent in order to match the Japanese language with the digital age, Japanese media reports have indicated.
For well over a millennium, Japan has used kanji, or Chinese characters, as part of the basis of its written language. Kanji originated from simplified pictures that help describe word meaning and situational nuance. Over time thousands and thousands of characters have been created and combined to form Japan's vibrant written lexicon - too many characters in fact for the average person to be reasonably expected to understand.
About the kanji for common use list
Since 1981, a government-approved list of 1,945 kanji has been followed as the basic guide of characters one must understand to fully comprehend the Japanese language in daily life. The list is used by both public institutions and publishers, and every Japanese person is theoretically expected to have mastered it by the time they complete high school.
The number has not always been 1,945 characters, the Mainichi noted. A list of 1,962 characters was set in 1923, and then reduced to 1,858 characters in 1931. In 1942, during the nationalistic fever of WWII, the number popped up 2,528 characters, but was then brought back down to 1,850 in 1946.
Kanji for common use list revision
For the new revision, 2,136 characters were chosen from a selection of 3,500 candidates. In total, 196 kanji were added, and 5 were deleted from the previous edition.
The added kanji were largely made up of characters that are harder to write by hand, but are believed to read frequently. The new additions include characters found in regional names, body parts, and food, among others. There will also be a small number of changes and additions to the way certain already common characters may be read.
The few kanji being removed were deemed less necessary in the current society, including two words relating to traditional Japanese measurement units and a character for “spindle.”
Reasons and potential effects of the change in kanji
A major part of the reasoning behind the current efforts are said to be because people are reading and writing more from electronic mediums, such as computers and mobile phones, and doing less writing by hand. Some point out that this is causing a shifting emphasis towards properly recognizing characters, and away from the necessity of being able to write them correctly.
The reform will be felt in language education, where more official characters certainly means more studying and potential test questions. Some teachers have expressed concerns about teaching the harder to write additions. However, the change is unlikely to cause any other strong instantaneous effects, as most adults already understand a majority of the "new" characters being added to the list due to their frequency of use.
Work on the new list started in 2005, and may be officially approved by as soon as November of this year, the Yomiuri added.
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