The jinmeiyō kanji (人名用漢字, Japanese pronunciation:[dʑimmeːjoːkaꜜɲdʑi], lit.'kanji for use in personal names') are a set of 863 Chinese characters known as "name kanji" in English. They are a supplementary list of characters that can legally be used in registered personal names in Japan, despite not being in the official list of "commonly used characters" ([[jōyō kanji|‹See RfD›jōyō kanji]]). "‹See RfD›Jinmeiyō kanji" is sometimes used to refer to the characters in both the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō and ‹See RfD›jōyō lists because some Japanese names do not require the specified ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji and are written entirely in ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji. Hence, ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji can also be viewed as a subset of ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji.[citation needed]
A ministerial decree of 1946 limited the number of officially sanctioned kanji for public use to the 1,850 [[tōyō kanji|‹See RfD›tōyō kanji]]. Only kanji on this list were acceptable as registered names, despite the fact that the list excluded many kanji frequently used in names up to that point. However, on May 25, 1951, the cabinet extended the set of characters usable in names by specifying the first 90 ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji.
Over the years, the Minister of Justice has increased the number of name kanji, and has a plan for further addition in response to requests from parents. As of April 30, 2009, there were 985 ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji, but this number was reduced to 861 in late 2010 when 129 ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō characters were transferred to the ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji list, and 5 characters were transferred from the ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji list to ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō characters. In 2015 and 2017, 2 kanji in total were added to the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō list, making the total number 863.
One would become part of the original ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji in 1981: 悠.
October 1, 1981
The ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji list was introduced, which included seven of the original 92 ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji from 1951 (mentioned above), plus one of the 28 new ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji from 1976 (also mentioned above); those eight were thus removed from the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji list. 54 other characters were added for a total of 166 name characters.
No addition to the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji was made on this date. However, a plan for 578 additions was put forward to the council on ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji of the legislative council of the Ministry of Justice. The list included certain characters in strong demand by parents for use in their children's names, such as:
Many others were included not for their potential uses in names (as is noted), but rather because of their frequent use and being easy to read and write. Examples include:
At this same council, the decision was made to call for suggestions on characters to be included or excluded via the Ministry of Justice website, until July 9, 2004.
July 12, 2004
3 kanji were added, for a total of 290 characters.
毘 瀧 駕
July 23, 2004
No additions were made. After sharp protests, the council decided to withdraw nine characters from the 489 whose inclusion had been discussed. These nine characters were:
The 480 other characters still remained under consideration for inclusion, with one additional character added to them, namely 掬 (‹See RfD›kiku, "to draw up water with one's hands").
September 27, 2004
484 characters[which?] and variant forms of 209 ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji were added, bringing the total number of the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji to 983.
April 30, 2009
2 more characters were added for a total number of 985 characters.
祷 穹
November 30, 2010
In late 2010, the Japanese government added 196 characters to the ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji list. The list now includes 129 characters previously classified as ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji, 11 of which are currently used in Japanese prefectures or nearby countries:[1][2]
At the same time, 5 characters deleted from the ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji list were added to the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji list, making the total number of ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji 861:
勺 (‹See RfD›shaku (しゃく), an old unit of measure approx. 18ml in volume, or 0.033m2 in area)
錘 (‹See RfD›sui (すい) or ‹See RfD›tsumu (つむ), a spindle or weight)
633 characters which do not appear in the list of ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji (regular-use kanji). 18 of these have a variant, bringing the number of character forms to 651.
212 characters which are traditional forms (‹See RfD›kyūjitai) of characters present in the list of ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji.
‹See RfD›Jinmeiyō kanji not part of the ‹See RfD›jōyō kanji
Below are the 18 characters that are variant forms of characters in the list above. For each variant form, the corresponding standard form ("non-variant" form) is in parentheses.
Usage of the ‹See RfD›jinmeiyō kanji in Japanese names varies widely. For example, 之, is used in over 6,000 names, and the 53 kanji used most commonly in names are all in over 500 names each.[6]
↑ Shiraishi, Akihiko (23 October 2009). "「柿」など９字追加、「鷹」は選外 新常用漢字の修正案"[New draft table adds 196 everyday-use kanji]. Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 14 February 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
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