Kanji (/ˈkændʒi, ˈkɑːn-/; Japanese: 漢字, pronounced [kaɲ.dʑi] , 'Han characters') are logographic Chinese characters, historically adapted from Chinese writing scripts, used in 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. Most Kanji characters have two pronunciations: kun'yomi, based on the sounds of vernacular Japanese, where the Kanji is often phonetically transcribed with furigana; and on'yomi, based on the imitation of the original Middle Chinese sound when it was borrowed from written Chinese. Some Kanji characters were indigenously invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the Kanji characters, now known as shinjitai (新字体; 'new character form'), by a process similar to China's simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the general public. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communication.
