Unicode Status for Katakana

In The Unicode Standard, Katakana implementation is discussed in Chapter 18: East Asia.

Katakana was first encoded in The Unicode Standard version 1.0. The script is now encoded in the following blocks:

Blocks	Character Range	Added in Unicode Version	Documentation
Katakana	30A0..30FF	1.0	U30A0.pdf
Katakana Phonetic Extensions	31F0..31FF	3.2	U31F0.pdf
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months	32D0..32FE	1.1	U3200.pdf
CJK Compatibility	3300..3357	1.1	U3300.pdf
Halfwidth Katakana	FF00..FFEF	1.1	UFF00.pdf
Kana Supplement	1B000..1B0FF	6.0	U1B000.pdf
Small Kana Extension	1B130..1B16F	12.0	U1B130.pdf

Subsequent to version 1.1, the following characters have been added to the Katakana blocks:

Characters	Unicode Version	Documentation
30A0	3.2	n2195.doc L2/00-098
30FF	3.2	n2092.pdf, n2195.doc L2/00-098
31F0..31FF	3.2
1B000..1B001	6.0	n3388.pdf L2/07-421

Documentation refers to ISO Working Group and Unicode proposals

A number of documents have been submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee and WG2:

• 2000-03-15 Rationale for non-Kanji characters proposed by JCS committee — Japan NB (WG2 N2092, WG2 N2195.doc, L2/00-098)

• 2000-09-20 Ad hoc Report on Japan feedback N2257 and N2258 — T. K. Sato, Michael Everson, Ken Whistler, Asmus Freytag (WG2 N2278, L2/00-342)

• 2004-05-12Hiragana_or_Katakana value of Script property should die — John Cowan (L2/04-160)

• 2004-06-17 Katakana_Or_Hiragana and UTR#29 — Mark Davis (L2/04-152)

• 2008-01-14 Proposal to encode two Kana characters concerning YE — Nozomu Katō (WG2 N3388, L2/07-421)

• 2008-07-14 Letter from Nozomu Kato to UTC, re Kana — Nozomu Katō (L2/08-257 - limited access to UTC members only)
  2009-01-28 Background Info on “e” Letters in Kana — Nozomu Katō (L2/09-062)

• 2010-04-29 Report of Phonetic Kana Usage for Lingua Latina — Nozomu Katō (L2/10-153)

• 2011-02-09 Proposal to add two kana characters — Ken Lunde (WG2 N3987, L2/10-468)

• 2011-05-30 Comment on “two kana” proposal — Japan NB (WG2 N4087, WG2 N4087.doc, L2/11-228)

• 2011-06-08 A response regarding small ko — Masahiro Sekiguchi (WG2 N4108, WG2 N4108.doc)

• 2016-05-10 Proposal for Japanese vowels with the voiced sound mark as named sequences — Hiroyuki Komatsu (L2/16-133)

  • UTC #147 Minutes (L2/16-121) (See B.15.5 for decision and action items)

• 2019-11-21 Proposal to Encode Missing Japanese Kana — Abraham Gross (L2/19-381)

• 2020-06-24 Base Character of HIRAGANA LETTER ARCHAIC WU — Abraham Gross (L2/20-152)

  • Recommendations to UTC #164 July 2020 on Script Proposals (L2/20-169) (See point 22.)

  • UTC #164 Minutes (L2/20-172) (See B.1 for decision and action items)

• 2020-11-09 A Proposal to Encode Taiwanese Kana in the UCS — Fredrick R. Brennan (L2/20-280)

  • Recommendations to UTC #166 January 2021 on Script Proposals (L2/21-016) (See point 22.)

  • UTC #166 Minutes (L2/21-009) (See B.1 — 22 for decision and action items)

• 2025-01-13 Request to Change VO for some Small Kana Letters and Bopomofo Letters — CheonHyeong Sim (L2/25-035)

• 2025-01-15 Proposal to Encode One Small Kana Letter — CheonHyeong Sim (L2/25-036)

  • Recommendations to UTC #182 January 2025 on Script Proposals (L2/25-010) (See point 6.8.)

  • UTC #182 Minutes (L2/25-003) (See D.1 6.8 and E.1 Section 21 for decision and action items)

  • Recommendations to UTC #183 April 2025 on Script Proposals (L2/25-091) (See point 5.8.)

  • UTC #183 Minutes (L2/25-085) (See D.1 5 for decision and action items)

• 2025-01-15 Proposal to add Katakana Letter Small Ne — Kentaro Bimbatti (L2/25-042)

  • Recommendations to UTC #183 April 2025 on Script Proposals (L2/25-091) (See point 5.9.)

  • UTC #183 Minutes (L2/25-085) (See E.1 Section 22 for decision and action items)

• 2025-02-20 Addendum to Proposal to add Katakana Letter Small Ne to Unicode — Kentaro Bimbatti (L2/25-060)

• 2025-04-22 Katakana and Hiragana digraphs annotations Recommendations to UTC #183 April 2025 on Script Proposals (L2/25-091) (See point 4.3.)