What Is Furigana?

What furigana are

Furigana are kana written in small type beside a kanji or a kanji word to show its pronunciation. The name combines 振る (ふる, to sprinkle on) and 仮名 (かな, kana): kana sprinkled over the text. Printers also call them ルビ (rubi), and you will hear 読み仮名 (よみがな, reading kana) for the same idea. In web and publishing software the general term is ruby text.

Placement depends on the writing direction. In horizontal text, the reading sits above the kanji: 漢字 with かんじ printed on top. In vertical text, such as most novels and manga, it sits to the right of the column. When typing without special formatting, people often put the reading in brackets instead, as in 漢字(かんじ).

Furigana can mark each character or the whole word. 日本語 can be glossed character by character as に, ほん and ご, because each kanji carries part of the sound. A word like 今日 (きょう, today) or 大人 (おとな, adult) gets one reading across both kanji, because the reading belongs to the word and cannot be split. If the difference between kanji readings is new to you, start with onyomi vs kunyomi.

Where you see furigana

How much furigana a text uses depends on who it is written for. Materials for young readers mark every kanji, a style called 総ルビ (そうルビ, full ruby). Adult texts mark only the kanji a typical reader might not know. If you want to read manga this way, our guide on how to learn Japanese with manga covers which titles to start with.

Names are a special case. Japanese forms usually include a field above your name labelled ふりがな or フリガナ, because the same kanji can be read many ways in names. The label tells you which script to use: write the reading in hiragana if it says ふりがな and in katakana if it says フリガナ.

Which kanji get furigana in adult text

Adult writing in Japan is built around the 常用漢字表 (じょうようかんじひょう), the official list of 2,136 kanji for general use, described in how many kanji are there. Kanji and readings on that list are printed without help. Kanji outside it, or unusual readings of listed kanji, often get furigana.

Japan's Council for Cultural Affairs spells this out for government writing in its 2022 guidance on official documents. When a writer uses a kanji or reading that is not on the list, they should add furigana, normally only to the unlisted kanji inside a compound. In 招聘 (しょうへい, invitation), only 聘 gets its reading へい. The reading does not need to be repeated every time the word appears: marking the first use in the document or chapter is enough, and it goes in the body text rather than in headings. The same guidance allows extra furigana on common kanji when a text is written for children or for readers whose first language is not Japanese.

If a word in an article has furigana only on its first appearance, the later ones will be bare. Note the reading the first time you see it, or you will be stuck three paragraphs later.

Hiragana or katakana furigana

Most furigana are hiragana, whether the kanji reading is native or Chinese-derived. Katakana furigana appear in a few places. Kanji dictionaries write on'yomi in katakana and kun'yomi in hiragana, so the script itself tells you the reading type. Chinese place names and personal names are often glossed with their modern pronunciation in katakana, as in 上海 (シャンハイ, Shanghai). If you are still unsure which script does what, the hiragana, katakana and kanji guide covers the basics.

Fiction adds a creative twist. Manga, novels and song lyrics sometimes print a reading that is not the kanji's reading at all, so the kanji show the meaning and the furigana show what the character actually says. A writer might put 親友 (close friend) with the reading ライバル (rival) on top, or 駅 (station) with ステーション. This is a stylistic device, so do not add those readings to your flashcards.

How to use furigana without depending on them

Furigana are a great help early on, because they let you read real text before you know every kanji. The risk is that your eyes go straight to the kana and skip the kanji, so you read a whole book and recognise no new characters afterwards. A few habits keep the kanji in the picture:

1. Look at the kanji first. Try to recall the reading, then glance at the furigana to check. The attempt is what builds memory.
2. Cover the furigana. For short texts, a strip of paper or your thumb over the reading line turns any page into a quiz.
3. Move to lighter furigana. Once a series feels easy, try material that marks only harder kanji, then text with none.
4. Pull out the words you check often. If you keep looking at the same reading, put the word into your reviews. Our guide to spaced repetition explains how to schedule them.
5. Learn the common readings directly. Frequent kanji like 読 (to read) and 書 (to write) are worth studying on their own so that you never need the help on them.

Kana speed matters here too. Furigana are small and dense, so slow kana reading makes every glance expensive. If you hesitate over hiragana, a few rounds of the kana quiz help. Moji uses the same approach as the first habit above: it shows the kanji, asks you to recall it, and then reveals the reading.

Adding furigana yourself

If you write study notes or make materials for other learners, you can add furigana without special tools. On paper, write the reading small above the kanji, or to the right in vertical writing. Word processors such as Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign support ruby text, and on the web the HTML ruby element does the same job: the base kanji go inside <ruby>, the reading goes inside <rt>, and optional <rp> brackets give older browsers a fallback such as 漢字(かんじ).

Whichever method you use, put the reading on the kanji you do not know yet and leave the rest bare. That is how adult Japanese text works, and it keeps your notes useful as your kanji grow. The JLPT N5 kanji are a good set to read without furigana first.