StrokeFox

Japanese vs Chinese stroke order

Which characters Japan and China write in a different order, counted stroke by stroke on KanjiVG and Make Me a Hanzi.

The short answer

KanjiVG (Japanese school order) and Make Me a Hanzi (the mainland order as it records it) share 5,084 characters by code point. Matching their strokes one by one, we find 312 written in a different order, 555 with a different number of strokes and 8 with a stroke drawn differently; 1,300 match stroke for stroke, and for 2,909 the shapes differ too much to match every stroke with confidence, so we make no claim.

Six famous cases

必

12345
必 Japanese
12345
必 Chinese

田

12345
田 Japanese
12345
田 Chinese

王

1234
王 Japanese
1234
王 Chinese

生

12345
生 Japanese
12345
生 Chinese

右

12345
右 Japanese
12345
右 Chinese

有

123456
有 Japanese
123456
有 Chinese

Highlighted numbers are the strokes that move between the two orders. Each pair links to both pages.

The characters with a page here

CharacterJA strokesZH strokesWhat differsPages
主55JA 3 = ZH 4; JA 4 = ZH 3kanji · hanzi
以545 vs 4 strokes (data sets)kanji · hanzi
住77JA 5 = ZH 6; JA 6 = ZH 5kanji · hanzi
出55JA 1 = ZH 3; JA 2 = ZH 1; JA 3 = ZH 2kanji · hanzi
勉10910 vs 9 strokeskanji · hanzi
北55JA 1 = ZH 2; JA 2 = ZH 1kanji · hanzi
右55JA 1 = ZH 2; JA 2 = ZH 1kanji · hanzi
国88JA 4 = ZH 5; JA 5 = ZH 4kanji · hanzi
建989 vs 8 strokes (data sets)kanji · hanzi
書1010JA 5 = ZH 6; JA 6 = ZH 5kanji · hanzi
有66JA 1 = ZH 2; JA 2 = ZH 1kanji · hanzi
母55JA 4 = ZH 5; JA 5 = ZH 4kanji · hanzi
注88JA 6 = ZH 7; JA 7 = ZH 6kanji · hanzi
海9109 vs 10 strokeskanji · hanzi
漢131413 vs 14 strokeskanji · hanzi
理1111JA 2 = ZH 3; JA 3 = ZH 2kanji · hanzi
生55JA 3 = ZH 4; JA 4 = ZH 3kanji · hanzi
田55JA 3 = ZH 4; JA 4 = ZH 3kanji · hanzi
着121112 vs 11 strokes (data sets)kanji · hanzi
考66stroke 5 drawn differentlykanji · hanzi
長88JA 1 = ZH 2; JA 2 = ZH 1kanji · hanzi
院10910 vs 9 strokeskanji · hanzi
青88JA 2 = ZH 3; JA 3 = ZH 2kanji · hanzi
准1010JA 7 = ZH 9; JA 8 = ZH 7; JA 9 = ZH 8kanji · hanzi
叫656 vs 5 strokeskanji · hanzi
喝111211 vs 12 strokeskanji · hanzi
坐77JA 5 = ZH 6; JA 6 = ZH 5kanji · hanzi
姓88JA 6 = ZH 7; JA 7 = ZH 6kanji · hanzi
希77JA 3 = ZH 4; JA 4 = ZH 3kanji · hanzi
往88JA 6 = ZH 7; JA 7 = ZH 6kanji · hanzi
所88JA 2 = ZH 3; JA 3 = ZH 4; JA 4 = ZH 2kanji · hanzi
星99JA 7 = ZH 8; JA 8 = ZH 7kanji · hanzi
望1111JA 9 = ZH 10; JA 10 = ZH 9kanji · hanzi
猫1111JA 9 = ZH 10; JA 10 = ZH 9kanji · hanzi
玩88JA 2 = ZH 3; JA 3 = ZH 2kanji · hanzi
班1010JA 2 = ZH 3; JA 3 = ZH 2; JA 8 = ZH 9; JA 9 = ZH 8kanji · hanzi
球1111JA 2 = ZH 3; JA 3 = ZH 2kanji · hanzi
睡1313JA 8 = ZH 9; JA 9 = ZH 10; JA 10 = ZH 11; JA 11 = ZH 12; JA 12 = ZH 8kanji · hanzi
舞151415 vs 14 strokeskanji · hanzi
那767 vs 6 strokes (data sets)kanji · hanzi
都111011 vs 10 strokes (data sets)kanji · hanzi

“Data sets” marks a count that the reference lists (KANJIDIC2 for Japanese, Unihan for Chinese) do not both confirm.

237 order differences in simplified and common forms

75 in traditional forms

For traditional characters the Make Me a Hanzi order is not a mainland standard, and Taiwan and Hong Kong teach their own; read these as a difference between the two data sets.

362 stroke-count differences confirmed by reference lists

KanjiVG's count equals KANJIDIC2's and Make Me a Hanzi's equals Unihan's zh-Hans count for these.

193 counts that differ between the data sets

Here at least one count is not confirmed by its reference list, so the difference can be a convention of the data (艹 in four strokes, 辶 in three) rather than a difference in teaching.

How the comparison works, and its limits

Both glyphs are centered and scaled to the same box. Each stroke becomes twelve points along its center line, and the Hungarian algorithm pairs the Japanese strokes with the Chinese ones by the smallest total distance. We call the order different only when every moved stroke matches its new partner clearly better than the stroke with the same number; otherwise the pair counts as unsure and no claim is made. Two things the method cannot see: a difference in the shape of a stroke that keeps its place, and a difference that comes from the two fonts rather than from the order. The comparison is ours, released under CC BY 4.0 on the data page.

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