Okurigana: the rules behind the kana after a kanji

Okurigana (送り仮名) are the kana written after a kanji to finish a word: the く in 書く, the しい in 美しい, the る in 起こる. They carry the inflection, and they often tell the reader which reading of the kanji is meant. Most of the time nobody thinks about them. Then a document lands on your desk with 行う in one paragraph and 行なう in the next, or 申し込み on page two and 申込み on page five, and you need to know whether that is an error, a choice, or both.

The short answer is that Japanese has an official reference for this, it allows more than one spelling for a fair number of words, and the job of a proofreader is usually not to find the one right form but to make sure one form is chosen and kept.

The official reference: 送り仮名の付け方

The rules most people mean are set out in a cabinet notice called 送り仮名の付け方 (okurigana no tsukekata, "how to attach okurigana"), first issued in 1973 and partly revised in 1981, when the Jōyō Kanji table was introduced, and again in 2010, when that table was revised. The full text is published by the Agency for Cultural Affairs on its okurigana page.

Its preface is worth reading because it limits its own reach. The notice is meant as a basis (よりどころ) for writing modern Japanese in everyday public life: laws, official documents, newspapers, magazines, broadcasting. It says plainly that it does not try to govern specialist fields such as science, technology and the arts, or how individuals choose to write. It also leaves out proper names, and kanji used as symbols or filled into tables. So a novelist who writes 行なう throughout is not breaking any rule. A government form that does the same is out of step with its own house practice.

How the notice is organised

The body is split into two parts:

1. Single words (単独の語), divided into words that inflect (verbs, adjectives, na-adjectives) and words that do not (nouns, adverbs, conjunctions and so on).
2. Compound words (複合の語), such as 申し込む or 取り扱い.

These are covered by seven general rules (通則, tsūsoku), plus a short list of special words from the appendix of the Jōyō table, such as 手伝う, 最寄り and 行方.

Each general rule is written in up to three layers, and this is the part that matters for checking:

The difference between 例外 and 許容 is the one to hold on to. An exception is the standard form for that word; writing it any other way is an error. An allowed variant is a legitimate alternative; writing it is a choice, and the only problem is mixing it with the main form in one text.

Inflecting words: the main rule and its edges

For verbs and adjectives, the main rule is simple: write the part that inflects in kana. So 書く, 生きる, 考える, 荒い, 濃い. The kanji covers the stem, the kana cover the ending.

Then come the exceptions. Adjectives whose stem ends in し start the okurigana from the し: 著しい, 惜しい, 珍しい. Na-adjectives with か, やか or らか before the ending start from that syllable: 静かだ, 穏やかだ, 明らかだ. And there is a list of individual words that are simply written their own way, including 味わう, 異なる, 危ない, 大きい, 少ない and 冷たい.

少ない is a good example of why exceptions are not optional. By the main rule alone you might expect 少い, and older texts do show that form, but the standard spelling is 少ない, and 少い in a modern document is a slip. The same goes for 短かい instead of 短い, 承わる instead of 承る, or 必らず instead of 必ず. These are not variants. They are mistakes, and a proofreader should mark them.

The allowed variants that cause most of the wobble

The same rule then allows a handful of verbs to start their okurigana one syllable earlier:

• 表す or 表わす (arawasu, "to express")
• 著す or 著わす (arawasu, "to write, publish")
• 現れる or 現われる (arawareru, "to appear")
• 行う or 行なう (okonau, "to carry out")
• 断る or 断わる (kotowaru, "to refuse")
• 賜る or 賜わる (tamawaru, "to be granted")

行う and 行なう are the pair you will meet most. The longer form survives for a practical reason: 行った can be read itta ("went") or okonatta ("carried out"), and 行なった removes the doubt. Some writers and publishers keep 行なう for that reason. Most newspapers and official documents use 行う and let context do the work.

A second group comes from words that contain another word. 動かす contains 動く, 起こる relates to 起きる, 終わる to 終える, and the okurigana follow the word inside. Here the allowed variants go the other way, toward shorter forms, when there is no risk of misreading: 起る for 起こる, 終る for 終わる, 変る for 変わる, 当る for 当たる, 落す for 落とす, 押える for 押さえる. You will see the short forms in older books and in some company documents. In most current writing the longer forms are the norm.

Nouns, adverbs and the cases that look random

Plain nouns take no okurigana at all: 月, 花, 山. A small listed set take their last syllable: 後ろ, 互い, 半ば, 幸せ, 全て and 自ら. Counting words with つ keep it: 一つ, 二つ, 幾つ.

Nouns made from verbs or adjectives keep the okurigana of the word they came from: 動き, 答え, 祭り, 暑さ, 重み. Then there is a list of such nouns that drop it by long habit, including 話, 光, 恥, 係 and 組. That explains a pairing that puzzles learners: 話 as a noun (話をする, "to have a talk") but 話し方 ("way of speaking") and 話し合い ("discussion"). The notice adds that where the verb is still felt in a word, the okurigana come back. So the noun 話 is written bare, while the verb stem inside 話し合い keeps its し.

Adverbs and conjunctions take their last syllable: 必ず, 再び, 最も, 及び, 但し. 又 takes none, and a few, such as 大いに and 直ちに, are listed with their own forms.

Compounds: 申し込む, 申込み, 申込書

Compound words are where house styles part company, and where most of the real consistency work sits.

The main rule for compounds is to give each part the okurigana it would have on its own. 申す plus 込む gives 申し込む, and the noun is 申し込み. 取り扱う gives 取り扱い. 打ち合わせる gives 打ち合わせ.

The allowed variant then says that where there is no risk of misreading, some of that okurigana may be dropped. The notice lists the possibilities word by word:

A further rule covers compound nouns that are written without okurigana by fixed custom, and here there is no choice to make. Titles and posts such as 取締役 ("company director"), craft names ending in 織 or 焼, and everyday words like 場合, 試合, 受付, 物語, 切手 and 書留 are standard without okurigana. The notice also gives forms such as 申込書 ("application form"), 見積書 and 取扱所, where the compound sits inside a longer fixed term. So one document can correctly contain both 申し込み and 申込書. A proofreader who "fixes" 申込書 to 申し込み書 has made the text worse.

How house styles choose

Because the allowed variants are allowed, every organisation that writes a lot of Japanese ends up choosing among them. A few broad patterns are useful to know.

School textbooks teach the main rules and the exceptions, so most readers learned the fuller forms first.

Official documents follow a 2010 cabinet instruction, 公用文における漢字使用等について, which takes the main rules and exceptions for single words, but for compound nouns that do not inflect tells writers to use the shorter allowed forms where they cannot be misread. That is why government pages write 申込み, 取扱い, 打合せ and 問合せ, and why 手続 appears without okurigana in official text. The 2022 guidance on official writing, 公用文作成の考え方, keeps this practice and notes that documents aimed at the general public may use the fuller forms readers learned at school.

Newspapers and broadcasters work from their own style books, which generally favour the fuller forms in running text (申し込み, 取り扱い) while keeping the fixed compound terms (申込書, 取締役).

Companies and translation clients vary. Some copy official style, some copy newspaper style, and many have never decided. If you are given no style sheet, pick one pattern, write it down, and apply it. The habits that keep a long document consistent are covered in the piece on hyōki yure.

A checking routine for okurigana

Here is a routine that fits into a normal proofreading pass.

1. Find out the house style. Official, newspaper-like, or the client's own list. If nothing exists, choose and note it at the top of your comments.
2. Run a mechanical pass. A checker that compares spellings within a text will catch some pairs; the legend explains what ours treats as an inconsistent spelling. It cannot tell you which form your style wants, and it will not know every pair.
3. Search on the stem. Searching for 行な finds every 行なう, 行なった and 行ない at once. Searching for 申込 finds 申込み, 申込 and 申込書 together. With a regular expression, 申し?込み? catches 申し込み, 申込み and 申込 (and the verb 申し込む) in one pass.
4. Separate errors from variants. 少い, 短かい and 承わる are errors whatever the style. 行なう and 申込み are variants that only need to match the style.
5. Leave fixed terms alone. 取締役, 場合, 申込書 and 受付 do not need okurigana added.
6. Watch for conversion slips. Okurigana also steer the input method, and a missing kana can bring up the wrong kanji entirely. IME conversion errors covers that side.

A short before-and-after, for a document that has chosen newspaper-style fuller forms:

Before: 説明会を行ないます。参加の申込みは、受付で申し込み書に記入してください。

After: 説明会を行います。参加の申し込みは、受付で申込書に記入してください。

Three changes: 行なう becomes 行う to match the style, the noun 申込み becomes 申し込み, and 申し込み書 becomes the fixed term 申込書. 受付 stays as it is.

Questions that come up

Is 行なう wrong?

No. It is listed as an allowed variant in the official notice. It is only a problem when the same text also uses 行う, or when the house style says otherwise.

Should a learner study the allowed variants?

Learn the main rules and the exceptions first, since that is what most dictionaries and textbooks show. Recognise the common variants when you read them, and use them only if a style guide asks you to.

Do the rules apply to names?

No. Personal names, place names and company names are outside the notice. They are written the way their owners write them, and a company that spells its own name with unusual okurigana should be left alone, even if the same word elsewhere in the text follows the house style.

Where can I check a single word quickly?

A good Japanese dictionary shows the standard okurigana in its headword, and many mark allowed variants. For anything official, the notice itself is short enough to search directly.