are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in Simplified Chinese characters, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification. Shinjitai were created by reducing the number of strokes in kyūjitai ("old character form") or , which is unsimplified kanji (usually similar to Traditional Chinese characters). This simplification was achieved through a process (similar to that of simplified Chinese) of either replacing the onpu (, "sound mark") indicating the On reading with another onpu of the same On reading with fewer strokes, or replacing a complex component of a character with a simpler one. There have been a few stages of simplifications made since the 1950s, but the only changes that became official were the changes in the Jōyō Kanji List in 1981 and 2010. Background The following forms were established as a result of the post-war character reforms. However, they were not completely created anew, as many were based on widely used handwritten abbreviations (ryakuji, ) from the prewar era. Due to the complexity of kanji, many abbreviations were used in handwriting, whose status rose to become official characters in the post-war reforms. Attention was paid to the aesthetic balance of the characters in their new form. In almost all cases, characters in the new standard have fewer strokes than old forms, though in a few cases they have the same number, and in a few other cases they have one more stroke. The most drastic simplification was 廳→庁, removing 20 strokes. A complete list by stroke count reduction can be found at: Unofficial simplifications The simplification in shinjitai were only officially applied to characters in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists, with the kyūjitai forms remaining the official forms of . For example, the character (KYO, agaru, ageru; raise [an example]) was simplified as , but the character (keyaki; zelkova tree) which also contained , remained unsimplified due to its status as a Hyōgaiji. Despite this, simplified forms of hyōgaiji do exist in Japanese character sets, and are referred to as . However, they are to be seen as unofficial, a position reiterated in the National Language Council's 2000 report on Characters Not Listed in the Jōyō Kanji Table. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper is thorough in its simplification of hyōgaiji, and