Kanji

Chinese characters used in Japanese writing

Kanji (Japanese: 漢字, hiragana: かんじ, Katakana: カンジ, pronounced [kaɲꜜdʑi, kaɲ.-] , 'Han characters') are logographic Chinese characters, historically adapted from Chinese writing scripts, used in the writing of Japanese. They comprised a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used today, along with the subsequently derived syllabic (phonographic) scripts of hiragana and katakana. Kanji may have one or more readings, conventionally grouped into two categories: kun'yomi, based on native Japanese words associated with the characters' meanings, and on'yomi, based on Chinese pronunciations adapted to Japanese at different periods.

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