Why are some Jinmeiyou kanji missing from JIS 1?


# Background

[人名用 (Jinmeiyou)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmeiy%C5%8D_kanji) kanji are
a list of ~800 kanji officially sanctioned by the Japanese government for use
in names.

[JIS-X-0208](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JIS_X_0208) is the major standard
for encoding kanji on computers. It's [broken into 3
levels](https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/jis-level-one-two.html), usually called
just "JIS 1/2/3"

  * **JIS 1** : ~3000 kanji, which is _supposed_ to include all the Jouyou kanji, Jinmeiyou kanji, and some extras that aren't in either list but are common anyways.
  * **JIS 2** : ~3500 kanji which are rarely used _(the[Kanji Kentei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_Kentei) is based on this)_
  * **JIS 3** : Mainly extras from Chinese that are almost never used

# My Question

I've found that JIS 1 apparently doesn't include _all_ the Jinmeiyou Kanji.
Specifically, these 15 are found in **JIS 3** (!?)

> 俠 焰 禱 繡 繫 蠟 醬 顚 鷗 俱 吞 簞 蟬 瘦 錄

**Why is that?** Are sources such as
[Jisho](https://jisho.org/search/%E4%BF%A0%20%23kanji) and
[Jitenon](https://kanji.jitenon.jp/kanjim/6430.html) wrong about them being
Jinmeiyou? Or were they added to the Jinmeiyou list recently?

_Cross-posted
to[Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/n5savy/why_are_some_jinmeiyou_kanji_missing_from_jis_1/?)_




JIS 0208 is frozen in development, in two versions (with different glyph
forms): as JIS X 0208:1997 (the 1990 forms) and as JIS X 0208 (2004 forms). It
has basically never revised its contents since 1997, and only once, in 2004,
corrected the particular forms of the glyphs in it.

人名用, however, are in constant development. Especially important was the case
of 2004, when "484 characters and variant forms of 209 jōyō kanji were added,
bringing the total number of the jinmeiyō kanji to 983". Of course, these
included many characters that were not incorporated to 0208 years before.

As for the particular characters mentioned:

俠 was JIS 0208:22-02 in 1978, but since the 1982 revisions, its place in 0208
was taken by 侠.

焰 was JIS 0208:17-75 in 1978, but since the 1982 revisions, its place in 0208
was taken by 焔.

禱 was JIS 0208:37-88 in 1978, but since the 1982 revisions, its place in 0208
was taken by 祷.

etc.

I think the pattern in clear: these particular characters represent the
reversal of the trend to [extended
shinjitai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_shinjitai). Originally, when
0208 was being compiled in 1978, the characters outside the, back then, [Tōyō
kanji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji) list were included
unsimplified. However, the 1982 revision wholesale replaced parts of
characters even outside the list by analogy with tōyō. However, to 2004 the
policy was reversed, and now even adding the character to Jōyō is [not
considered enough reason to
simplify](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/65354/27977). Hence, the newly
appended name-allowed characters appeared in jinmeiyō in their unsimplified
forms - which were thus not in 0208, from which the unsimplified forms were
cut in 1982.

**Further reading:**

  * Lunde, Ken - _CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing_ - O'Reilly Media (2009)
  * Lunde, Ken - _Prescriptive Kanji Simplification_ - PhD Wisconsin-Madison (1995), on the specific matter of 1982 0208 replacements.

Note that the extended shinjitai matter does not explain all of the entries
mentioned: for example, 吞 was explicitly added to jinmeiyō without any 0208
precedence. In fact, this character was only added to Adobe-Japan1-4 standard
and thus is not even covered by simplest of Japanese fonts.




JIS 0208 is frozen in development, in two versions (with different glyph
forms): as JIS X 0208:1997 (the 1990 forms) and as JIS X 0208 (2004 forms). It
has basically never revised its contents since 1997, and only once, in 2004,
corrected the particular forms of the glyphs in it.

人名用, however, are in constant development. Especially important was the case
of 2004, when "484 characters and variant forms of 209 jōyō kanji were added,
bringing the total number of the jinmeiyō kanji to 983". Of course, these
included many characters that were not incorporated to 0208 years before.

As for the particular characters mentioned:

俠 was JIS 0208:22-02 in 1978, but since the 1982 revisions, its place in 0208
was taken by 侠.

焰 was JIS 0208:17-75 in 1978, but since the 1982 revisions, its place in 0208
was taken by 焔.

禱 was JIS 0208:37-88 in 1978, but since the 1982 revisions, its place in 0208
was taken by 祷.

etc.

I think the pattern in clear: these particular characters represent the
reversal of the trend to [extended
shinjitai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_shinjitai). Originally, when
0208 was being compiled in 1978, the characters outside the, back then, [Tōyō
kanji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji) list were included
unsimplified. However, the 1982 revision wholesale replaced parts of
characters even outside the list by analogy with tōyō. However, to 2004 the
policy was reversed, and now even adding the character to Jōyō is [not
considered enough reason to
simplify](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/65354/27977). Hence, the newly
appended name-allowed characters appeared in jinmeiyō in their unsimplified
forms - which were thus not in 0208, from which the unsimplified forms were
cut in 1982.

**Further reading:**

  * Lunde, Ken - _CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing_ - O'Reilly Media (2009)
  * Lunde, Ken - _Prescriptive Kanji Simplification_ - PhD Wisconsin-Madison (1995), on the specific matter of 1982 0208 replacements.

Note that the extended shinjitai matter does not explain all of the entries
mentioned: for example, 吞 was explicitly added to jinmeiyō without any 0208
precedence. In fact, this character was only added to Adobe-Japan1-4 standard
and thus is not even covered by simplest of Japanese fonts.

