Hyōgai kanji

Hyōgaiji (表外字, translated to "characters from outside the table/chart"), also hyōgai kanji (表外漢字) and jōyōgai kanji (常用外漢字), are Japanese kanji outside the two major lists of Jōyō, which are taught in primary and secondary school, and Jinmeiyō, which are additional kanji that officially are allowed for use in personal names.

Because hyōgaiji is a catch-all category for "all unlisted kanji", there is no comprehensive list, nor is there a definitive count of the hyōgaiji. The highest level of the Kanji kentei (test of kanji aptitude) tests approximately 6,000 characters, of which thus 3,000 are hyōgaiji, while in principle any traditional Chinese character or newly coined variant may be used as hyōgaiji; the traditional dictionaries the Kangxi Dictionary and the 20th century Dai Kan-Wa jiten contain about 47,000 and 50,000 characters, respectively, of which thus over 40,000 would be classed as hyōgaiji or non-standard variants if used in Japanese.

Traditional and simplified forms