Tōyō kanji in the context of "Jinmeiyō kanji"

Shinjitai (Japanese: 新字体; 'new character form') are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the tōyō kanji list in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese characters, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification.

Shinjitai were created by reducing the number of strokes in kyūjitai ("old character form") or seiji (正字; "proper/correct characters"), which is unsimplified kanji (usually similar to traditional Chinese characters). This simplification was achieved through a process (similar to that of simplified Chinese) of either replacing the onpu (音符, "sound mark") indicating the on reading with another onpu of the same on reading with fewer strokes, or replacing a complex component of a character with a simpler one.

The jōyō kanji (常用漢字; Japanese pronunciation: [dʑoːjoːkaꜜɲdʑi] , lit. "regular-use kanji") are those kanji listed on the Jōyō kanji hyō (常用漢字表; literally "regular-use kanji list"), officially announced by the Japanese Ministry of Education. The current list of 2,136 characters was issued in 2010. It is a slightly modified version of the tōyō kanji, which was the initial list of secondary school-level kanji standardized after World War II. The list is not a comprehensive list of all characters and readings in regular use; rather, it is intended as a literacy baseline for those who have completed compulsory education, as well as a list of permitted characters and readings for use in official government documents. Due to the requirement that official government documents make use of only jōyō kanji and their readings, several rare characters are also included due to their use in the Constitution of Japan, which was being written at the same time the original 1,850-character tōyō kanji list was compiled.

The 2,136 kanji in the jōyō kanji consist of: