JapanKnowledge Personal Support

Use of new characters and old characters

JapanKnowledge employs an identification system for old kanji and kanji variants, allowing users to search using either old kanji or new kanji characters. The standard for identifying new and old kanji is based on the "Joyo-kanji jitaihyo" (the official guide to kanji characters and their readings by the Japanese Ministry of Education) and the "Jinmei-kanji jitaihyo" (list of kanji that can be legally used in registered personal names in Japan).

▲For example, when searching for "Ryoma Sakamoto," the name displayed may appear as "坂本竜馬" (new kanji) or "坂本龍馬" (old kanji), depending on the editorial policy of each dictionary (such as approval of the use of new kanji).

About Machine-Dependent Characters

Using machine-dependent characters or extended kanji, may result in corrupted characters, and search problems. Please avoid using machine-dependent characters and extended kanji.

Permanent Link

A permanent link is a URL which remains unchanged for every page and serves as a stable reference for specific content. It allows you to save a page with customized search results or filtered content, making it easy to share with others. For example, if both you and another person are members of JapanKnowledge, it is possible to share search result URLs by e-mail or text files. Permanent links are also useful for bookmarking pages.