"Learn Joyo Kanji in 10 minutes" (old list)
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[/floatr]The Agency for Cultural Affairs announced plans to expand the Joyo Kanji (常用漢字) list for the first time since 1981. Many of the additions are currently commonly used in place names like these eleven:阪 ( as in 大阪 Osaka)
熊 (as in 熊本 Kumamoto)
奈 (as in 奈良 Nara)
岡 (as in 岡山 Okayama)
鹿 (as in 鹿児島 Kagoshima)
梨 (as in 山梨 Yamanashi)
阜 (as in 岐阜 Gifu)
埼 (as in 埼玉 Saitama)
茨 (as in 茨城 Ibaraki)
栃 (as in 栃木 Tochigi)
媛 (as in 愛媛 Ehime)
The old list (as in the video clip above) included 1,945 kanji and the new additions, which will officially come into use at the start of 2010, will take the list to the 2000 level. These new changes have been prompted by the growing use of computers which was making life difficult for people with common names like Fujiwara which used the character 藤 (wisteria), previously not on the list. One article mentions that some characters were originally excluded because they were difficult to write but virtually everyone could read them easily. The widespread use of keypads and keyboards has made the writing issue less relevant. I haven't seen a complete list of the new additions yet but NHK mentioned that 虎 (tiger) and 蝶 (butterfly), both often written in katakana, will also be added.
