Is there a term for Japanese characters as a whole?


There are kanji, katakana and hiragana, but is there a native word or phrase
for the union of these sets?




Unfortunately no word exactly represents only the union of kanji, hiragana and
katakana.

  * 漢字: kanji
  * 仮名: kana; hiragana & katakana
  * 字／文字: kanji, kana, punctuation, other written symbols
  * 和字／和文: _(typography term)_ kanji, kana, punctuation, fullwidth Latin letters etc. used in Japanese typesetting (as opposed to 欧文, or ordinary Latin typesetting symbols)

I tend to agree that it'd be convenient if we had an exact blanket term of
kanji and kana, but they are too heterogeneous (logogram and syllabary) to be
lumped together by nature, especially in relation to other writing symbols
used at the same time. That said, 日本語の文字 would convey your intended meaning in
most of the time.

**PS** The obviously correct way to refer to them is 漢字と仮名.




Unfortunately no word exactly represents only the union of kanji, hiragana and
katakana.

  * 漢字: kanji
  * 仮名: kana; hiragana & katakana
  * 字／文字: kanji, kana, punctuation, other written symbols
  * 和字／和文: _(typography term)_ kanji, kana, punctuation, fullwidth Latin letters etc. used in Japanese typesetting (as opposed to 欧文, or ordinary Latin typesetting symbols)

I tend to agree that it'd be convenient if we had an exact blanket term of
kanji and kana, but they are too heterogeneous (logogram and syllabary) to be
lumped together by nature, especially in relation to other writing symbols
used at the same time. That said, 日本語の文字 would convey your intended meaning in
most of the time.

**PS** The obviously correct way to refer to them is 漢字と仮名.

