Regulations Japanese name
kanji names in japan governed japanese ministry of justice s rules on kanji use in names. of january 2015, 843 name kanji (jinmeiyō kanji) , 2,136 commonly used characters (jōyō kanji) permitted use in personal names. intended ensure names can readily written , read literate in japanese. rules govern names considered inappropriate; example, in 1993 2 parents tried name child akuma (悪魔, literally means devil ) prohibited doing after massive public outcry. though there regulations on naming of children, many archaic characters can still found in adults names, particularly born prior second world war. because legal restrictions on use of such kanji cause inconvenience such names , promote proliferation of identical names, many recent changes have been made increase rather reduce number of kanji allowed use in names. sapporo high court held unlawful government deny registration of child s name because contained kanji character relatively common not included in official list of name c...