| Romanization | にほんご （日本語） | Meaning |
|---|
| rōmaji | ローマじ （ローマ字） | Roman letters, romanization |
| hiragana | ひらがな （平仮名） | the cursive variety of the Japanese syllabary |
| katakana | かたかな（片仮名） | the squarish Japanese syllabary |
| kana | がな （仮名） | hiragana and katakana |
| kanji | かんじ （漢字） | Chinese character, kanji |
| jōyō kanji | じょうようかんじ （常用漢字） | the 1,945 Chinese characters designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1981 to be taught in the first nine years of schooling |
| furigana | ふりがな （振り仮名） | small kana printed alongside or above a Chinese character to show its pronunciation |
| okurigana | おくりがな （送り仮名） | the non-kanji (usually hiragana) endings on verbs and adjectives (verbal suffixes) |