What is a typical font size for Japanese text?


What size of type is commonly used in Japanese books, magazines, or in blocks
of online text? Since there is unlikely to one single size, I'd welcome an
answer that either gave a rough range or listed a couple specific examples
from major presses, newspapers, or websites.

(I am asking because I'm curious about whether the complexity of kanji leads
to larger type than the type sizes that are standard for works produced with
roman letters.)




Typical main text of a paperback targeted to adults uses a font size between 8
and 9 pt. Most newspapers use 8.6 pt (≒3 mm). In footnotes or such, as small
as 5 pt is possible.

Websites use larger fonts. Condensed pages like [Yahoo!
home](http://www.yahoo.co.jp/) use 12px (9pt), but most recent sites prefer
16px (12pt) or so for main text. From what I understand, most global websites
(like Twitter) use the same `font-size` setting for their Japanese and English
versions.

The smallest font size which is practically readable is 9 pixels (this was
common in the Windows 3.1 / Mac OS 6 era), but [there is even a 7 pixel
font](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/36423/5010).

