「[ササ]」字考

Abstract

[ササ]" has been regarded as a "wrong" character by MJJ (Ministry of Justice Japan). It is excluded from the Unified Character Set for Family's Registers 戸籍統一文字) in Japan, and from the computer character sets such as JIS X 0213 or Unicode. In September, 2009, MBS (Mainichi Broadcast Station) reported about a family, whose family name had been "[ササ]山" and was changed into "密山" by MJJ. MJJ has been trying to exclude "wrong" characters from Family’s Registers, correcting them into "right" characters. MJJ considered "[ササ]" as a "wrong" character and corrected it into "密" . MBS contacted CIEAS (Center for Informatics in East Asian Studies, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University) about the character "[ササ]", and the author, a faculty member of CIEAS, was interviewed. In fact "[ササ]" is less common nowadays. Thus the author, also a member of JIS committee, did not include "[ササ]" in JIS X 0213, since JIS X 0213 should include characters that are common in Japan. However, "[ササ]" was used more frequently in the Kamakura period and appeared in old Japanese dictionaries. "[ササ]" is a rarely-used character but not a "wrong" one. As a result MJJ withdrew their decision about "[ササ]" and re-corrected the family name into "[ササ]山". But MJJ is still trying to exclude other "wrong" characters from Family's Registers even now.