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Both 和紙 and 日本紙 translate to **Japanese paper** so I'm wondering what is the
usage of each?
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2018-04-12T12:46:22.337
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2018-04-12T17:34:34.273
2018-04-12T13:56:31.763
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question
word-choice nouns
What is the difference between 和紙 and 日本紙
There is no difference in meaning. 「和」 means 「日本」.

It is just that 「和紙{わし}」 is used more often than 「日本紙」 is. The former is a
"household" word even children know and use whereas the latter sounds more
"technical" and slightly stiff to me.
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2018-04-12T13:37:55.760
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2018-04-12T13:37:55.760
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answer
日本紙 is **just another name** for 和紙 (also see the
[entries](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E7%B4%99-592751#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88)
in a monolingual dictionary).

和紙 is a much more common word than 日本紙 — corpus data suggest a ratio of about
100:1 — not unlike _beverage_ and _drink_ in English (similar ratio,
actually).

Talking of drinks, a similar question could be asked about 日本茶 and 緑茶.
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2018-04-12T13:54:32.063
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2018-04-12T17:34:34.273
2018-04-12T17:34:34.273
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answer