easy to read and write. Examples include: (kuso, "excrement") (noroi, "curse") (shikabane, "corpse") (gan, "cancer") At this same council, the decision was made to call for suggestions on characters to be included or excluded via the Ministry of Justice website, until July 9, 2004. July 12, 2004 3 kanji were added, for a total of 290 characters. 毘 瀧 駕 July 23, 2004 No additions were made. After sharp protests, the council decided to withdraw nine characters from the 489 whose inclusion had been discussed. These nine characters were: (kuso, "excrement") (noroi, "curse") (shikabane, "corpse") (gan, "cancer") (kan, "rape, seduction") (midara, "obscene") (urami, "resentment") (ji, "hemorrhoids") (mekake, "concubine") The 480 other characters still remained under consideration for inclusion, with one additional character added to them, namely (kiku, "to draw up water with one's hands"). September 27, 2004 484 characters and variant forms of 209 jōyō kanji were added, bringing the total number of the jinmeiyō kanji to 983. April 30, 2009 2 more characters were added for a total number of 985 characters. 祷 穹 November 30, 2010 In late 2010, the Japanese government added 196 characters to the jōyō kanji list. The list now includes 129 characters previously classified as jinmeiyō kanji, 11 of which are currently used in Japanese prefectures or nearby countries: (ibara in , Ibaraki Prefecture) (hime in , Ehime Prefecture) (oka in , Shizuoka Prefecture) (kan in , South Korea) (kuma in , Kumamoto Prefecture) (sai (or saki) in , Saitama Prefecture) (tochi in , Tochigi Prefecture) (na in , Nara Prefecture) (nashi in , Yamanashi Prefecture) (saka in , Osaka) (fu in , Gifu Prefecture) At the same time, 5 characters deleted from the jōyō kanji list were added to the jinmeiyō kanji list, making the total number of jinmeiyō kanji 861: (shaku (しゃく), an old unit of measure approx. 18ml in volume, or 0.033m² in area) (sui or tsumu (つむ/すい), a spindle or weight) (sen (せん), pig iron) (chō or fuku[reru] (ちょう/ふく[れる]), to swell or bulge; mostly used in the compound , normally rewritten with instead) (momme (もんめ), a unit of weight approx 3.75g) January 7, 2015 1 kanji was added, for a total of 862 characters. 巫 September 25, 2017 1 kanji was added, for a total of 863 characters. 渾 List of jinmeiyō kanji The list is split into two parts: 633 characters which do not appear in the list of