Shinjitai

Shinjitai (kanji: 新字体, kana:しんじたい) literally means "new character forms" in Japanese. These are kanji (the Japanese word for Chinese characters) that were simplified in Japan after World War II. At that time the Japanese government changed the writing system by replacing many kyūjitai (kanji: 旧字体, kana: きゅうじたい, meaning: old character forms) by making simpler characters. These newer characters had the exact same meaning and pronunciations as the older ones, but they could be written with fewer strokes of a pen. For example, the character 樂 simplified to 楽. Some shinjitai characters are also used as simplified Chinese characters. For example, the character 国 is used in both Japanese and simplified Chinese. However, most shinjitai look more like traditional Chinese characters (called kyūjitai in Japanese) than even simplified Chinese characters do, and there are also far fewer shinjitai than simplified Chinese characters. While most Japanese words these days use the shinjitai form, there are a few words where writing the kyūjitai form is still common. For example, the word "dragon" is usually written using the shinjitai character 竜, but writing the kyūjitai character 龍 for it is also still quite common. For most kanji, however, the shinjitai form is unchanged from the kyūjitai form.

 Comparison of Kyūjitai, Shinjitai, and Simplified Chinese Characters 
+KyūjitaiShinjitaiSimplified ChineseMeaningCharacters simplified differently in both Japanese and Chinese龍竜龙dragon龜亀龟turtle廣広广wide / expanse闗関关close單単单single / odd亞亜亚inferior / second ; Asia樂楽乐happy / cheerful / joy / pleasure圓円圆round/ Japanese yen or Chinese yuan (name of currency)鐡鉄铁iron / railroad齒歯齿tooth歸帰归return麵麺面noodlesCharacters simplified the same way in both Japanese and Chinese國国国country / kingdom / state / nation濕湿湿wet / damp豿狗狗dog舊旧旧old體体体formCharacters simplified in Chinese but not in Japanese東東东east車車车car / coach / cart / vehicle ; wheel飮飲饮drink話話话talk / speech銀銀银silver紙紙纸paper貝貝贝shell測測测survey /  measure門門门door / gate聞聞闻hear / news葉葉叶leaf機機机machine愛愛爱loveCharacters simplified in Japanese but not in Chinese渴渇渴thirsty冰氷冰ice佛仏佛Buddha / BuddhismCharacters not simplified in either language潟潟潟salinized soil / lagoon鼠鼠鼠mouse / rat / rodent
Category:Chinese characters
Category:Japanese language