Editing Furigana (section)

==Usage==
[[File:Higashifushimi.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Furigana indicates the pronunciation above the kanji for the names of three stations on the Seibu Railway, 東伏見 (Higashi-Fushimi Station), 武蔵関 ( Musashi-Seki Station) and 西武柳沢 (Seibu-Yagisawa Station). The sign also includes romaji below the kanji for each station.]]
Furigana are most commonly used in works for children, who may not have sufficiently advanced reading skills to recognize the kanji, but can understand the word when written phonetically in [[hiragana]]. Because children learn hiragana before [[katakana]], in books for very young children, there are hiragana－furigana next to the katakana characters. It is common to use furigana on all kanji characters in works for young children. This is called {{nihongo|''sōrubi''|[[wikt:総ルビ|総ルビ]]}} in Japanese.

Numeric characters used for counting (e.g. {{lang|ja|二{{ruby-ja|本|ほん}}/2{{ruby-ja|本|ほん}}}} ''ni-hon'' "two long things"; {{lang|ja|2つめ}} ''futatsume'' "second"; {{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|第|だい}}二{{ruby-ja|巻|かん}}/{{ruby-ja|第|だい}}2{{ruby-ja|巻|かん}}}} ''dai-ni kan'' "book 2"; {{lang|ja|2ページ}} ''ni-pēji'' "page 2"; etc.) are usually not tagged with furigana. Exceptions include a few cases such as 一人/1人 ''hitori'' "one person" and 二人/2人 ''futari'' "two people", which may be tagged with separate kana for each character ({{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|一|ひと}}{{ruby-ja|人|り}}}}/{{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|1|ひと}}{{ruby-ja|人|り}}}}), or non-separated kana for the whole word ({{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|一人|ひとり}}}}/{{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|1人|ひとり}}}}), depending on the style of the publisher in question; or characters for numerals greater than 1,000 (千), such as 万 (10,000), 億 (100,000,000), etc. Numeric words in established compounds (e.g. {{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|一|いっ}}{{ruby-ja|歩|ぽ}}}} ''ippo'' "step"; {{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|一|ひと}}{{ruby-ja|目|め}}}} ''hitome'' "sight; attention"), however, are generally tagged with furigana.

Many [[Children's anime and manga|children's manga]], [[shōnen]] and [[shōjo manga]] use furigana (again however, rarely on [[Japanese numerals|numerals]]). Shōnen and shōjo manga tend to have furigana for all non-numeric characters, while some manga (such as early volumes of ''[[Doraemon]]'' and other manga published by [[Shogakukan]]), may also ignore furigana on elementary-grade kanji or easy words.{{Efn|For example, in the ''Doraemon'' short titled {{lang|ja|人間{{ruby-ja|切|せつ}}{{ruby-ja|断|だん}}{{ruby-ja|機|き}}}}, the word 人間 has no furigana.}} [[Seinen]] and [[josei manga]] ignores furigana most of the time, even on the names of the characters if they're common names, although some publishers may still routinely use furigana for the first mentions of important characters' names in a volume or chapter. There are also books with a phonetic guide (mainly in [[hiragana]] but sometimes in [[rōmaji]]) for Japanese learners, which may be bilingual or Japanese only. These are popular with foreigners wishing to master Japanese faster and enjoy reading Japanese short stories, novels or articles.

Due to the small type used for furigana, for maximum readability, some manga publishers may use regular kana instead of small kana. For example, はっしん ''hasshin'' may be spelled はつしん *''hatsushin'' instead.

Some websites and tools exist which provide a phonetic guide for Japanese web pages (in hiragana, rōmaji or [[Cyrillization of Japanese|kiriru-moji]]); these are popular with both Japanese children and foreign Japanese learners.

In works aimed at adult Japanese speakers, furigana may be used on a word written in uncommon kanji; in the mass media, they are generally used on words containing non-[[Jōyō kanji]].

Furigana commonly appear alongside kanji names and their romanizations on signs for railway stations, even if the pronunciation of the kanji is commonly known. Furigana also appear often on maps to show the pronunciation of unusual place names.

Before the second world war, the Japanese youth might have arguably been almost illiterate, and unable to read texts containing high amounts of [[Kanji]] if not for furigana.<ref>{{cite book|last=Defrancis|first=John|title=The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|page=216|date=1986}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|reason=Not easily verifiable; No statistics to support.|date=July 2022}}

===Names===
[[Japanese name]]s are usually written in [[kanji]]. Because there are many possible readings for kanji names, including special name-only readings called [[nanori]], furigana are often used to give the readings of names.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ogihara |first1=Yugi |date=21 June 2021 |title=I know the name well, but cannot read it correctly: difficulties in reading recent Japanese names |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00810-0 |journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1-7 |doi=10.1057/s41599-021-00810-0 |access-date=10 December 2024|doi-access=free }}</ref> On Japanese official forms, where the name is to be written, there is always an adjacent column for the name to be written in furigana.

Furigana may also be used for foreign names written in kanji. Chinese and Korean names are the most common examples: Chinese names are usually pronounced with Japanese readings and the pronunciation written in hiragana, while Korean names are usually pronounced with Korean readings and the pronunciation written in katakana.

===Language learning===
Kanji and kanji compounds are often presented with furigana in Japanese-language textbooks for non-native speakers.

Furigana are also often used in foreign-language textbooks for Japanese learners to indicate pronunciation. The words are written in the original foreign script, such as [[hangul]] for [[Korean language|Korean]], and furigana is used to indicate the pronunciation. According to Ministry of Education guidelines, and the opinions of educators, the use of Japanese furigana should be avoided in English teaching due to the differences in pronunciation between English and Japanese. For instance, the word "birthdate" might be glossed in furigana as {{lang|ja|バースデイト}} (''bāsudeito''), which corresponds to an imperfect pronunciation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gifu-net.ed.jp/kyoka/eigo/CommunicativeEnglish/05-11cSpeaking.htm |title=Speaking/Pronunciation |author=Lena Ginsburg |date=July 2005 |publisher=Gifu Prefectural Board of Education |access-date=3 May 2012 |display-authors=etal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629173921/http://www.gifu-net.ed.jp/kyoka/eigo/CommunicativeEnglish/05-11cSpeaking.htm |archive-date=29 June 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://genkienglish.net/katakana.htm |title=No Katakana!! |author=Richard Graham |access-date=3 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508074514/http://www.genkienglish.net/katakana.htm |archive-date=8 May 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Other effects===
Furigana unrelated to the kanji they are assigned to are often used to convey certain effects, rather than to denote a phonetic guide, especially in manga, anime, video games, and tabletop games.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/11/furigana-meaning.html|title=Furigana - What Is It?|work=Japanese with Anime|access-date=2017-08-28|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828104040/http://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/11/furigana-meaning.html|archive-date=28 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
This usage is known as {{lang|ja|義訓}} ''gikun'' (see also [[Kanji#Special readings]]). The specific effects vary.

It may be used to visually reinforce complex ideas without having to use long expressions. For example, the word {{wikt-lang|ja|悪夢}} ''akumu'' "nightmare" may be annotated with {{lang|ja|[[wikt:真実|しんじつ]]}} ''shinjitsu'' "truth" (i.e. {{ruby-ja|悪夢|しんじつ}}) rather than its true reading, to convey the meaning of "nightmarish truth".<ref>{{cite book|last=Aoyama|first=Gosho|author-link=Gosho Aoyama|date=15 March 2007|title=Magic Kaito|script-chapter=ja:ダーク・ナイトの巻【後編】|trans-chapter=Dark Knight [Last Chapter]|volume=4|title-link=Magic Kaito|quote={{lang|ja|いや...{{ruby-ja|彼|かれ}}は{{ruby-ja|盗|ぬす}}んで{{ruby-ja|行|い}}きましたよ...この{{ruby-ja|子|こ}}のために...{{ruby-ja|悪夢|しんじつ}}をね...}}}}</ref>
Some authors may even use furigana that means the opposite of what the base text does to reinforce the complicated relationship between characters. For example, {{wikt-lang|ja|親友}} ''shin'yū'' "close friend" may be annotated with {{wikt-lang|ja|ライバル}} ''raibaru'' "rival", to mean "a rival who is also friend".<ref>{{cite book|last=Sorachi|first=Hideaki|author-link=Hideaki Sorachi|date=9 February 2008|title=Gintama|script-chapter=ja:第百九十三訓 『プリズンブレイク シーズン2』ってアレ もうプリズンをブレイクしてるからプリズンブレイクじゃなくね？|trans-chapter=Lesson 193: "Prison Break Season 2"? They've Already Broken Out of Prison, Why Is It Still Called "Prison Break"?|volume=22|title-link=Gintama|quote={{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|私|わたし}}の{{ruby-ja|親友|ライバル}}}}}}</ref>

Another use is to indicate the meanings of ambiguous or foreign words. For example, the word {{wikt-lang|ja|ここ}} (''koko'', "here") may be annotated with a more specific description like {{wikt-lang|ja|病院}} ''byōin'' "hospital" (i.e. {{ruby-ja|病院|ここ}}) to mean "here (at this hospital)". Or in a work of science fiction, an astronaut may use the word {{wikt-lang|ja|ふるさと}} ''furusato'' "my hometown", when referring to planet Earth; to clarify that for the reader, {{lang|ja|ふるさと}} may be written over the word {{wikt-lang|ja|地球}} ''chikyū'' "Earth". A similar technique is used in Japanese subtitles on foreign films to associate the written Japanese with the sounds actually being spoken by the actors, or in a translation of a work of fiction to preserve the original sound of a proper name in furigana while indicating its meaning with kanji. For example, "Firebolt" in the [[Harry Potter]] series is written {{ruby-ja|炎の雷|ファイアボルト}}, composed of the kanji {{wikt-lang|ja|炎の雷}} ''honō no ikazuchi'' "flame thunderbolt" and the furigana {{lang|ja|ファイアボルト}} ''faiaboruto''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter Titles in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian (Chapter 11: The Firebolt) |url=http://www.cjvlang.com/Hpotter/book3/bk3ch11.html |website=cvlang.com |access-date=6 November 2021}}</ref>

Some manga combine the rendition of a foreign word (especially an obscure one) in furigana as the intended reading of a term, with more familiar kanji as the meaning. For example, {{wikt-lang|ja|駅}} ''eki'' "station" may be annotated with {{lang|ja|ステーション}} ''sutēshon'' (the [[Transcription into Japanese|rendition]] of the English "station") to convey a foreign, exotic feel;<ref>{{cite book|last=Amano|first=Kozue|author-link=Kozue Amano|date=27 April 2002|title=Aqua|script-chapter=ja:Navigation06 始めてのお客様 |trans-chapter=Navigation 06: A First-Time Customer|volume=2|title-link=Aria (manga)|quote={{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|浮|う}}き{{ruby-ja|島|じま}}への{{ruby-ja|空|くう}}{{ruby-ja|中|ちゅう}}ロープウェイ{{ruby-ja|駅|ステーション}}まで{{ruby-ja|頼|たの}}む}}}}</ref>
This is sometimes done conversely, for example, by annotating an exotic term like {{wikt-lang|ja|ベーゼ}} ''bēze'' "kiss" with a more common synonym like {{wikt-lang|ja|キッス}} ''kissu''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Takahashi|first=Rumiko|author-link=Rumiko Takahashi|date=15 August 1991|title=Ranma ½ |script-chapter=ja:PART.9 怪奇！お上品館 |trans-chapter=Part 9: Horror! Folks of Class|volume=16|title-link=Ranma ½ |quote={{lang|ja|{{ruby-ja|ベーゼ|キッス}}にびっくりなさるとは、なんて{{ruby-ja|純|じゅん}}{{ruby-ja|情|じょう}}なマドモアゼル...}}}}</ref>

Some writers use furigana to represent slang pronunciations, particularly those that would be difficult to understand without the kanji to provide their meaning.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schreiber |first=Mark |date=2013-07-14 |title=Furigana: read the fine print, decode the hidden meanings |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/07/14/language/furigana-read-the-fine-print-decode-the-hidden-meanings-2/ |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=The Japan Times |language=en}}</ref> Others use it simply to shrink kana spellings that are too long, thanks to the small type of furigana.  For example, {{wikt-lang|ja|インターポール}} ''intāpōru'' "[[Interpol]]" may be shortened to {{ruby-ja|ICPO|インターポール}}.

In [[karaoke]] it is common for furigana to be placed on the song lyrics. The song lyrics are often written in kanji pronounced quite differently from the furigana. The furigana version is used for pronunciation.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}