Japanese fonts

Handling Japanese fonts breaks into three layers: the kinds of typeface, switching between them inside a document, and setting them up per engine. Built on the two-typeface model — Mincho for body text and Gothic for headings and emphasis — this page walks through switching with \mcfamily / \gtfamily, configuring fonts with kanji-config-updmap on (u)pLaTeX or luatexja-preset on LuaLaTeX, and which glyph files actually get embedded (today’s TeX Live default is Harano Aji).

Japanese typefaces — Mincho and Gothic

Japanese typesetting rests on two typefaces. Mincho has thin horizontal strokes, thick vertical strokes, and small triangular serifs (called *uroko*, “scales”) at stroke ends — the counterpart of a Western serif (roman) face. It reads well, so it is the standard choice for body text. Gothic has strokes of nearly uniform weight and no serifs — the counterpart of a sans-serif face. It stands out clearly, which suits headings, emphasis, captions, and labels in figures and tables.

This mapping lines up directly with the Western model: Mincho is the **default body face, paired with roman (\rmfamily), and Gothic is the face paired with sans-serif (\sffamily) — a two-family scheme. One important consequence: in Japanese, \bfseries (bold) is effectively mapped to Gothic.** Unlike in Western text, Mincho carries no bold weight by default, so “make it bold” becomes “switch to Gothic.” (Even LuaTeX-ja’s defaults set the bold series of both families to the medium series of Gothic.)

Beyond these two there are brush styles. Kaisho is a regular “block” brush script, written stroke by stroke with the brush lifted between strokes; Gyosho is a flowing “semi-cursive” script with strokes joined and somewhat abbreviated. They are used for certificates, formal addresses, invitations, and anywhere a traditional feel is wanted. There is also Maru Gothic (rounded Gothic), reachable via the deluxe option of the otf package discussed below. For everyday papers and books, though, Mincho and Gothic remain the two that matter.

Switching typeface inside a document

Switching typeface follows the same conventions as the Western font commands: a declaration form that takes effect over a scope, and a command form that affects only its argument. Mincho is \mcfamily (declaration) and \textmc{...} (command); Gothic is \gtfamily and \textgt{...}. Here mc abbreviates *mincho* and gt abbreviates *gothic*.

本文は明朝体で組みます。\textgt{ここだけゴシック体}で強調できます。

{\gtfamily この波括弧の中はすべてゴシック体になります。}

見出しなどは \textbf{太字} にすると、和文では自動的にゴシック体になります。

These switch the family, independently of weight (series) and slant (shape). As noted, \bfseries and \textbf{} map to Gothic in Japanese. Japanese also has essentially no notion of italic or oblique, so slanted glyphs like the Western ones are normally not provided. Some classes and packages can be set so that \rmfamily / \sffamily also switch Mincho / Gothic in step (in LuaTeX-ja, the match option of luatexja-fontspec).

Setup (1): pLaTeX / upLaTeX + dvipdfmx

In traditional (u)pLaTeX, the metrics (character widths) of the Japanese fonts are fixed virtually, and the body source does not name a real font to use. The real font actually embedded into the PDF is chosen by a system-side setting, not by the document. The tool that flips that setting is **kanji-config-updmap**, shipped with TeX Live. It rewrites the font maps (updmap.cfg) that dvipdfmx consults, swapping the real fonts for Mincho and Gothic in one step.

To configure it for all users, use kanji-config-updmap-sys (needs administrator rights); for yourself only, kanji-config-updmap-user (the user setting takes priority over the system one). Check the current state first, then switch by passing the name of the font family you want.

# いまどの和文フォントが埋め込まれる設定かを確認 / show the current setting
kanji-config-updmap-sys status

# 原ノ味フォントに切り替える（TeX Live の既定）/ switch to Harano Aji (the TeX Live default)
sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys haranoaji

# 他の例：ヒラギノ・IPAex・Noto / other examples
sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys hiragino-pron
sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys ipaex
sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys noto-otc

# フォントを埋め込まない／自動で見つける / embed nothing, or auto-detect
sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys nofont
sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys auto

The status command lists the current setting and the candidate fonts found on the system. auto searches for a usable commercial or free font, sets it up for embedding, and falls back to no embedding if none is found. To use the JIS X 0213:2004 glyph shapes (“2004 JIS”), add --jis2004 (e.g. sudo kanji-config-updmap-sys --jis2004 haranoaji). Since dvipdfmx embeds fonts into the PDF by default, the glyphs are reproduced even in a PDF you send to others.

To use multiple typefaces and weights in the body, load the otf package (next section). Under upLaTeX, name the engine explicitly, as in \usepackage[uplatex]{otf}.

Setup (2): LuaLaTeX + LuaTeX-ja

Under LuaLaTeX, **LuaTeX-ja (luatexja) handles Japanese typesetting and lets you name the OpenType/TrueType fonts installed on the OS directly. The easiest route is the luatexja-preset** package, which sets up a common combination of Japanese fonts with a single “preset” word. For Harano Aji, it is one line:

\documentclass{ltjsarticle}
\usepackage[haranoaji]{luatexja-preset}  % 明朝＝原ノ味明朝, ゴシック＝原ノ味角ゴシック
\begin{document}
本文は明朝体。\textgt{見出しはゴシック体}。
\end{document}

Many preset names are defined — haranoaji, hiragino-pro / hiragino-pron, noto / noto-otc, sourcehan, ipa / ipaex, ms, yu-win10, and more. To enable multiple weights (so you can use light and bold Mincho/Gothic within the body), add the **deluxe** option.

\usepackage[haranoaji,deluxe]{luatexja-preset}

To pick any font without a preset, load **luatexja-fontspec** and use commands in the same style as fontspec. For Japanese, \setmainjfont (body = Mincho), \setsansjfont (= Gothic), and \setmonojfont (monospace) mirror the Western-side \setmainfont and friends. For a one-off, \jfontspec works too.

\usepackage{luatexja-fontspec}
\setmainjfont{Harano Aji Mincho}    % 明朝（本文）
\setsansjfont{Harano Aji Gothic}    % ゴシック（見出し・強調）
% \setmainjfont{Hiragino Mincho ProN}  % 例：macOS のヒラギノ

LuaLaTeX outputs PDF directly, without a DVI step, and the fonts you name are embedded automatically. The source encoding is assumed to be UTF-8. Unlike (u)pLaTeX, the advantage of the LuaLaTeX route is that font selection is self-contained within the document (the source).

The otf package and Adobe-Japan1 / CID

The **otf package (japanese-otf), by Shuzaburo Saito, is the standard way to reach the Adobe-Japan1** character set from (u)pLaTeX. Adobe-Japan1 is the canonical glyph collection for Japanese fonts, including variant forms, symbols, and old-style characters that do not fit in JIS X 0208. The same functionality is available under LuaTeX-ja as luatexja-otf.

Two commands name characters directly. **\UTF{...} takes a Unicode code point (a four- or five-digit hexadecimal number), and \CID{...}** takes an Adobe-Japan1 CID number (in decimal). The benefit is that a variant glyph you cannot type (an old-style character in a personal name, say) can be produced reliably by its code value.

森\UTF{9DD7}外（森鴎外の「鴎」を正字「鷗」で）
\CID{7652}飾区（葛の異体字）
葛城市、\CID{1481}城駅

Its options matter, too. **deluxe** unlocks seven faces in total — three weights of Mincho, three of Gothic, and one Maru Gothic — and adds \mgfamily / \textmg{...} for the rounded Gothic. **expert enables extra glyphs such as vertical-writing punctuation and variant forms, and jis2004** selects the 2004 JIS shapes. Using multiple weights requires that a matching real font (Harano Aji, Hiragino, etc.) be configured.

The main Japanese fonts and their files

Finally, the glyphs that actually get embedded. The default Japanese font in current TeX Live is the “Harano Aji” font. It is a free font derived from Source Han (Source Han Sans / Serif) = Noto CJK, published by Google and Adobe, and tuned to embed well in PDFs. It became the default in TeX Live 2020, replacing the previous default, the IPAex font. (Because an upgrade from an older setup keeps the prior setting, you may need to switch explicitly with kanji-config-updmap-sys haranoaji.)

Harano Aji’s real files are named like HaranoAjiMincho-Regular for Mincho and HaranoAjiGothic-Medium for Gothic, with Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, and Heavy weights. LuaTeX-ja’s defaults preload exactly this Regular for body Mincho and this Medium for Gothic. The Japanese font encodings are JY3 for horizontal writing and JT3 for vertical. Whichever font you pick, both dvipdfmx and LuaLaTeX embed the glyphs into the PDF for distribution, so it opens with the same look even where the font is not installed.