Big in Japan: 15 Japanese characters that you can learn today {Gadling}

Oct 18th 2008 1:18AM Japanese Kanji have different readings: on'yomi and kun'yomi. On'yomi are the Chinese readings, while kun'yomi are the Japanese. Kanji can have multiple readings, and which one you use is dependent on the context of the word and sentence. Usually it's the kun'yomi for proper names and for words with a single character, while the on'yomi is used for compound words, but there aren't any set rules. Like the word for Sunday is 日曜日-nichi yo bi where the same kanji is pronounced two different ways in the same word!