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Basically, a trivia question that someone could answer with a script.

What is the statistically most popular kanji in Japanese texts not in the jōyō list? Was it ever considered for inclusion? Is it popular due to names only or used in compounds? Same for hyōgai kanji.

Earthliŋ
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Alexander Z.
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's looking for a statistic, not addressing something specific about the Japanese language. – istrasci Oct 01 '18 at 19:02
  • A minor point but perhaps 'highest frequency' is a more accurate term than 'popular', assuming you are asking about statistical relativity between kanji characters. – kandyman Oct 01 '18 at 19:34
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    @istrasci I think it is a reasonable question. – kandyman Oct 01 '18 at 19:35
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    @kandyman: That's fine if you think that. That's why closing questions is decided by voting and not just one person. And I don't think it's unreasonable; just off-topic. – istrasci Oct 01 '18 at 20:22

3 Answers3

19

Here are the top 30ish non-jouyou, non-jinmei kanji from several frequency databases. I compiled these a while ago for my own curiosity and don't readily have references to the source data (other than the excel file I made).

The kanji in each list (except for the last one) are in descending order of frequency with the most frequent first.

Aozora Bunko

學處爺體當厭妾叩顏覗會對聲嘘歸掻發鼠儘變呆數噛慾狐關經睨呟

Newspaper

嶽渕澤涌槿舛趙尹鉾靱妓聯諫潘舘銚筧苫炳粕桓橿荊姦薮扮捏頸鮫禱

Twitter

嘘艸垢澤奢餃糞卍叩彡琲罒噛呟騙咳舐罠芒炒灬贅苫遽煽乁洒覗痒揉

Wikipedia

澤學牝魏牌鐵曰欅祀叩渕濱讐癌趙輌舘嘘苫狗吊譚站讀綬廠姦薇憑罠

Top 50 Jinmei from Newspaper

伊晋幌之也鵬菅彦阿弘圭智浩龍笠菱旭桐宏嶋柏李祐昌萩函遼嘉敦筑吾栗尖輔奄亮佑幡篠峯淳翔俣蔭稀堺磐毅乃哉
(EDIT: These were completely incorrect before the edit. I skipped part of the data when copying.)

These are the ones that appear in more than one list (so they are probably the most useful)

澤嘘姦罠覗叩呟噛學渕舘苫趙

G-Cam
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    Wow, some of those, especially in the bottom list, are so common it's hard to believe they were never added to the jōyō kanji. –  Oct 01 '18 at 23:18
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    I don't know many kanji, but that 學 is simply variant of a Joyo one, isn't it? It's basically how it's rendered in Chinese Traditional. – Omar and Lorraine Oct 02 '18 at 08:24
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    @Wilson Yeah, it's actually listed on the jōyō kanji chart as a 旧字体. –  Oct 02 '18 at 10:35
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    I'm surprised so many common kanji are not in the Joyo list :o – a20 Oct 02 '18 at 21:06
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    Nice idea to split them by genre! 艸 among other Twitter ones will be for making 顔文字 smileys ( *´艸｀) – Robin Oct 02 '18 at 23:51
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    Did you distinguish kanji used for names and toponyms from kanji for common words here? – stop-cran Oct 03 '18 at 00:12
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    @stop-cran The listings omit the Jinmeiyou kanji but are not processed in any other way as far as I know. I doubt that place names were accounted for given that each listing originally began with the kanji used to write dates. I'd expect that those would have been accounted for differently if the data had been post-processed at all. (The first thing I'd have done if I had compiled the data would have been to omit anything that looked like a date). – G-Cam Oct 03 '18 at 15:17
14

Using the Joyo kanji from here and the frequency list from here, I was able to generate this list (ordered by frequency):

伊 智 弘 彦 阿 李 浩 菱 煕 宏 幌 之 曽 梶 昌 靖 渕 也 旭 磯 孜 盧 笠 聡 曙 趙 筑 萩 栗 嘉 篠 菅 俣 淵 辰 霞 柏 辻 淳 荻 嶋 鳩 柴 桂 晋 晃 桐 鷹 猪 紘 庄 敦 磐 祐 鵬 亘 鄭 芦 龍 笹 柿 釧 綾 釜 毅 嶌 稔 函 鴨 樋 楊 駿 亮 吾 椿 圭 蓮 倶 堺 呆 窪 雀 畠 瑞 伍 蘭 蒲 秦 茅 輔 粕 冨 湘 椎 灘 堰 獅 姜 郁 鷲 楠 芥 其 玲 翔 肇 榎 劉 幡 諏 亨 嶺 喬 崔 琵 琶 聯 蘇 寅 乃 洲 樽 樺 槙 薩 巌 淀 麹 賭 睦 胡 峻 炒 屏 槻 蝶 梁 琢 箕 芭 逗 苫 楢 蕉 兜 琉 朋 姑 烏 僑 奄 遼 橘 漱 桧 宋 苑 巽 杜 藝 欣 魏 篇 此 峯 巴 禎 菩 檜 稜 牟 榊 錫 荏 倭 廟 銚 斐 魁 薮 鴻 於 赳 逢 凧 鵜 庵 葵 萬 禄 孟 鴈 狼 尖 翫 嶽 尭 卿 已 巳 暢 粟 燕 綴 埴 魯 牡 芹 杏 迦 鳳 馨 蔭 焉 慧 祇 鷺 彬 袴 匡 苅 讃 尹 欽 湛 狐 鴎 瀋 挺 嵯 雁 佃 綜 狛 壷 橿 翠 鮎 播 榛 帖 桶 惣 鞍 蔦 萱 梯 雫 絆 湊 隼 舵 渚 珂 煥 稀 癌 峨 嘘 旛 篭 芙 皐 雛 娼 篆 鮫 惟 牌 宕 喧 佑 蒋 樟 耀 黛 櫛 渥 濡 槍 襄 惇 蛋 脩 笘 宍 甫 壕 嬉 囃 蒼 簗 峙 粥 舘 銕 鄒 蜷 暉 捧 只 箏 檀 鵠 凱 彗 諌 樫 噂 牝 梓 洛 醍 砦 丑 笏 蕨 噺 抒 隈 叶 汐 絢 叩 朔 蔡 鍾 仇 伽 夷 瞑 杭 寓 黎 坐 鍼 塙 冴 葦 礒 咸 萌 饗 歪 偲 韮 漕 杵 薔 膠 允 眞 蒙 蕃 呑 碓 茗 瀕 蒔 鯉 竪 瘤 澤 溥 遥 或 矩 厦 冤 舜 侠 贅 杖 汪 猷 瑛 搜 曼 彪 撚 噛 卯 桝 撫 喋 溢 闊 藏 浙 彭 淘 剃 揃 綺 徘 巷 竿 蟹 袁 舩 茜 凌 厨 犀 簑 皓 甦 洸 毬 檄 姚 蛭 叢 椙 轟 贋 洒 貰 儲 緋 鯛 蓼 甕 喘 怜 溜 邑 鉾 碧 燈 瓜 哺 槌 啄 穣 嗜 偕 酉 蹄 頚 胚 牢 糞 悌 吊 楕 鮭 詫 鱒 轍 醤 惚 廣 藁 柚 舛 縞 謳 杞 鱗 釘 弛 狸 壬 硯 蝦

Link to the script.

This does not answer all of your questions but it could be a good start.

Hatchet
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  • I suppose 琵 and 琶 nowadays are mostly used to refer a lake 琵琶湖. Anyway, apparently there are much more rare kanji in various names. – stop-cran Oct 03 '18 at 04:40
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This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but here there is a list of Jinmeiyo kanji (kanjis used for names which arent joyo kanji) listed by frequency. I noticed the second in the list is the first in one of the lists here.

之 伊 阿 乃 彦 智 紗 弘 祐 也 莉 嘉 巳 宏 龍 昌 浩 佑 吾 嶋 輔 栗 玖 茉 庄 幡 李 亮 笠 桂 晃 辻 眞 哉 冨 猪 笹 耶 淵 淳 磯 杏 慧 峯 萌 旭 伽 廣 鷹 菅 丞 埜 窪 惟 靖 萩 柴 篠 瑞 幌 國 綾 圭 嵯 甫 玲 芦 郁 俣 蓮 洲 柚 聡 柏 瑛 蘭 辰 允 峨 暢 楠 嶺 樋 伍 翔 侑 庵 琉 朋 畠 爾 鴨 紘 桐 敦 惠 蒲 梶 葵 鵜

Jinmeiyo Kanji by frequency

Full list on the link

Pablo
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