A Comparative Study of Kanji in Japanese and Chinese Characters

Abstract

       The purpose of this research is to study and compare the similarities and the differences between KANJI characters in Japanese and Chinese characters in Chinese in terms of their shape, sound and meaning by comparing each KANJI character in daily life (2,136 characters) with the same character in Chinese in terms of shape, sound and meaning. 

       The study shows that, in terms of their shape, most KANJI characters are similar to traditional Chinese characters, but some characters are similar to simplified Chinese characters, variant characters and some are created by the Japanese. In terms of their sound, the alphabet and the vowel sound of a Chinese character is equivalent to several alphabet and vowel sounds of KANJI characters. In terms of their meaning, KANJI characters and Chinese characters share the same meaning around 99 percent. There is only 1 percent that has different meaning. The main reason of the differences is that reforming method of each country is different.