kanji

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
kanji

   <human language, character> /kahn'jee/ (From the Japanese
   "kan" - the Chinese Han dynasty, and "ji" - {glyph} or letter
   of the alphabet.  Not capitalised.  Plural "kanji") The
   Japanese word for a {Han character} used in Japanese.  Kanji
   constitute a part of the {writing system} used to represent
   the Japanese language in written, printed and displayed form.
   The term is also used for the collection of all kanji
   {letters}.

   {US-ASCII} doesn't include kanji characters, but some
   {character encodings}, including {Unicode}, do.

   The Japanese writing system also uses hiragana, katakana, and
   sometimes romaji ({Roman alphabet} letters).  These characters
   are distinct from, though commonly used in combination with,
   kanji.  {Furigana} are also added sometimes.

   (2000-12-30)