Õñ€ê¢Ãû (Furigana), the small Japanese ¢Ãû (kana, letters) you see over kanji that help clarify h×Ö€ÎÕi€ß·œ (kanji no yomikata, how to read the kanji), are currently drawing a lot of attention.
As the žÄÕýõŒ®·š (kaisei koseki hš, Revised Family Register Act) came into force on May 26, the Japanese government announced that Õñ€ê¢Ãû written in ¥«¥¿¥«¥Ê (katakana) should be recorded for every citizen¡¯s name in the õŒ® (koseki, family register).
One of the things this revision aims to do is limit the use of so-called ¥¥é¥¥é¥Í©`¥à (kira-kira ²Ôš¥³Ÿ³Ü). ¥¥é¥¥é is an onomatopoeic term meaning ¡°shiny and glittery,¡± while ¥Í©`¥à (²Ôš¥³Ÿ³Ü) is the katakana rendering of ¡°name,¡± which is usually written as ÃûÇ° (namae, name) in Japanese.
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