1942, the National Language Council announced the with a total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society. In 1946, after World War II and under the Allied Occupation of Japan, the Japanese government, guided by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, instituted a series of orthographic reforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals. The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called . Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged. These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used; these are known as . Kyōiku kanji The are the 1,026 first kanji characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, from first grade to sixth grade. The grade-level breakdown is known as the , or the . This list of kanji is maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education and prescribes which kanji characters and which kanji readings students should learn for each grade. Jōyō kanji The are 2,136 characters consisting of all the , plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school. In publishing, characters outside this category are often given . The were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as the , introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, the list was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previously ; some are used to write prefecture names: , , , , , , , , , and . Jinmeiyō kanji As of September 25, 2017, the consists of 863 characters. Kanji on this list are mostly used in people's names and some are traditional variants of . There were only 92 kanji in the original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the term refers to all 2,999 kanji from both the and lists combined. Hyōgai kanji are any kanji not contained in the and lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, but extended shinjitai forms exist. Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji The Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji and kana define character code-points for each kanji and kana, as well as other forms of writing