Tōyō kanji

The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō (当用漢字表, "list of kanji for general use") are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters of Chinese origin in the Japanese written language. They were the kanji declared "official" by the Japanese Ministry of Education (文部省^?) on November 16, 1946. They were replaced in 1981 by the Jōyō kanji.

Thousands of kanji characters were in use in various writing systems, leading to great difficulties for those learning written Japanese. Additionally, several characters had identical meanings but were written differently from each other, further increasing complexity.

Prior to World War II, language scholars were concerned with these problems in learning Japanese writing. One of their more radical proposals was to abolish the Chinese kanji characters entirely and make use of an entirely phonetic system. When the Ministry of Education tried to implement this reform, however, it encountered strong opposition from scientists, writers and the general public, and the idea was finally dropped.

After World War II, the Ministry of Education decided to minimize the number of kanji by choosing the most commonly used kanji, along with simplified kanji (see Shinjitai) commonly appearing in contemporary literature, to form the tōyō kanji. This was an integral part of the postwar reform of Japanese national writing.

This was meant as a preparation for re-introducing their previous unsuccessful reform abolishing Chinese characters. Although the postwar timing meant no public debate was held on the future of the Japanese written language, the defenders of the original kanji system considered and accepted the tōyō kanji as a reasonable compromise. Since this compromise could not then be withdrawn in favour of more radical reform, discussion of kanji abolition ended. Thirty-five years passed before further reforms were brought to the Japanese written form.

The table of the pronunciations of the kanji was published in 1948 and the list of characters in 1949.

...
Wikipedia