Ateji

In modern Japanese, ateji (当て字, 宛字 or あてじ, "called upon characters") principally refer to kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to man'yōgana in Old Japanese. Conversely ateji also refers to kanji used semantically without regard to the readings.

For example, the word sushi is often written with the ateji 寿司. Though the two characters have the readings su and shi respectively, the character 寿 means "one's natural life span" and 司 means "to administer", neither of which has anything to do with the food. Ateji as a means of representing loanwords has been largely superseded in modern Japanese by the use of katakana (see also Transcription into Japanese), although many ateji coined in earlier eras still linger on.

Usage

Ateji today are used conventionally for certain words, such as 寿司 (sushi), though these words may be written in hiragana (especially for native words), or katakana (especially for borrowed words), with preference depending on the particular word, context, and choice of the writer. Ateji are particularly common on traditional store signs and menus. For example, kōhī, the Japanese loanword for "coffee", is generally written using the katakana コーヒー, but on coffee shop signs and menus, it is often written with the ateji 珈琲. However, tabako, the Japanese loanword for "tobacco", is generally written as たばこ (in hiragana – despite being a loanword) – or タバコ (katakana), even on signs, and rarely written as the ateji 煙草.