There are similar punctuation marks in Japanese and English like the question mark and the exclamation mark, but there are other punctuation marks you’ve probably never seen or used before!
Punctuation helps us express ourselves and show emotion in our writing but did you know that it wasn’t a part of the Japanese language until the Meiji era?
That’s right, Japanese punctuation was practically non-existent until 1946 when the Ministry of Education made it compulsory!
Nowadays, punctuation is a huge part of the Japanese language especially with the rise of instant messaging. Most Japanese used in casual writing like text and online messaging is full of punctuation marks, and some of them are used more by girls than boys!
Punctuation in general is known as 句読点 / kutouten in Japanese, but Japanese punctuation marks are specifically called 役物 / yakumono (occasionally 役物記号 / yakumono kigo).
Let’s take a look at the different types of Japanese punctuation marks so you can add some flavor to your writing!
- 。Ten (点) or Maru (丸) – Period
- 、Touten （読点）Comma
- Kantanfu (感嘆符）Exclamation mark
- ？Gimonfu （疑問符）Question mark
- ー Chōonpu （長音符） Long sound symbol
- 〜 Nami dashu （波ダッシュー） Wave dash
- …Santen rida （三点リーダー）Ellipsis (the dot-dot-dot!)
- ・ Nakaguro （中黒）Interpunct
- （ ）Marukakko（丸括弧）Parentheses
- 【 】Sumitsuki （住み着き）Lenticular brackets
- 「 」Kagi kakko （鉤括弧）Single quotation marks
- 『 』Niju kagi kakko (二重鉤括弧) Double inverted commas
- ※ Komejirushi （米印）Asterisk
A note on half-width vs. full-width characters in Japanese
If you’ve ever had to fill out an online form in Japanese, you would have come across the concept of ‘half-width’ (半角 / hankaku) vs ‘full-width’ （全角 / zenkaku） characters.
This simply refers to the vertical and horizontal ratio of the characters: half-width characters are half as wide as they are high, while full-width characters are equal in width and height. Japanese, Korean and Chinese characters are full-width by default.
Full-width characters include spaces and punctuation in Japanese – so there is a larger space between Japanese characters and punctuation than there is in English.
For example when using an exclamation point, the Japanese punctuation mark takes up a full-width space compared to the English exclamation point:
すごい！ as opposed to すごい!
If you are on a computer, you can try highlighting each of the exclamation marks above with your mouse to see the difference in spacing for full-width (left) and half-width (right) characters!
Now, on to the punctuation marks: