includes various written marks (besides characters and numbers), which differ from those found in European languages, as well as some not used in formal Japanese writing but frequently found in more casual writing, such as exclamation and question marks.
Japanese can be written horizontally or vertically, and some punctuation marks adapt to this change in direction. Parentheses, curved brackets, square quotation marks, ellipses, dashes, and swung dashes are rotated clockwise 90° when used in vertical text (see diagram).
Japanese punctuation marks are usually "full width" (that is, occupying an area that is the same as the surrounding characters).
Punctuation was not widely used in Japanese writing until translations from European languages became common in the 19th century.
Japanese punctuation marks
Brackets
Various types of are used in Japanese. As in English, brackets are used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. When writing vertically, brackets are rotated clockwise ninety degrees. Each bracket occupies its own square when using genkō yōshi.
Braces
｛ ｝
Parentheses
（ ）
Square brackets
［ ］
Lenticular brackets
【 】
, also known as lenticular brackets. Lenticular brackets are also used as quotation marks in the Japanese language.
Comma
The is used in many contexts, principally for marking off separate elements within a sentence. In horizontal writing, the comma is placed at the bottom right of the preceding character. In vertical writing, it is placed immediately below and to the right of the last character, in a separate square if using genkō yōshi. In horizontally written manuscripts that contain a mixture of Japanese and Western characters, the full-width comma may be incorporated as well. No extra space is left after a comma.
Double hyphen
The double hyphen (, nijū haifun or , daburu haifun) is exclusively used in transliteration. It may act in two ways: Primarily, it is used to represent a hyphen (-), due to potential confusion with the prolonged sound mark (). For example, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau" is written "", and "Catherine Zeta-Jones" is written "". Occasionally, the hyphen too may be represented as an interpunct (・), in which case no distinction is made between hyphens and spaces. Although far more rarely, it can be observed in identical use to the interpunct. In that case, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" may, for example, be written "".
Digitally, it is correctly represented in Unicode as . However, due to visual similarity, absence from historically common encodings such as Shift JIS and EUC-JP, and ease of input on a keyboard, it is often encountered written as .
Ellipsis
Ellipses ( rīdā (leaders), tensen (dotted line), or ten-ten ("dot dot") indicate an intentional omission or abbreviation, or a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis). Ellipsis was adopted into Japanese from European languages.
The ellipsis is often three dots or six dots (in two groups of three dots), though variations in number of dots exist. The dots can be either on the baseline or centred between the baseline and the ascender when horizontal; the dots are centred horizontally when vertical.
Other uses:
As a substitute for dashes
In manga and visual novels, the ellipsis by itself often represents speechlessness or a "pregnant pause"
Full stop
The is a small circle. In horizontal writing, the full stop is placed in the same position as it would be in English, that is, at the bottom right of the preceding character. In vertical writing, it is placed immediately below and to the right of the last character, in a separate square if using genkō yōshi. (Note the difference in placement with the traditional Chinese full stop, which is placed in the centre of the square.)
Unlike the English full stop, it is often used to separate consecutive sentences, rather than to finish every sentence; it is frequently left out where a sentence stands alone. No extra space is used after a full stop.
In manuscripts that contain a mixture of Japanese and Western characters, the Western full stop may be incorporated as well.
Words containing full stops
Starting in the 1980s, advertising copy writers began incorporating full stops in titles and other advertising. In the 1990s, the group began using a full stop in its name, starting a fad for this usage. Other examples include the following: