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I'm trying to understand the implications of the jōyō list. From the wikipedia
page, I understand that it's an "official" list in the sense that it is:

  * maintained by the Ministry of Education
  * an exclusive list of kanji available for official government documents
  * a list of mandatory kanji to be taught in school

Looking over the history of changes and the latest batch of 196 new kanji from
2010 I was surprised that, even with my little knowledge, I could recognize
three:

  * 呂 as in "風呂" (bath)
  * 椅 as in "椅子" (chair)
  * 阪 as in "大阪" (Osaka)

Does that mean that, prior to 2010, school children were not necessarily
taught how to write the words for "chair" and "bath"; or that official govt.
documents could not reference Osaka? Were kana/other kanjis used?
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question
jōyō-kanji
How come some jōyō kanji for everyday concepts are very new additions?
These kanji are definitely taught. One way or another. I did not go through
the education system in Japan so I cannot directly speak to what happens in
the classroom. But I have several textbooks and references used in elementary
school and high school.

All these resources present these kanji and the textbooks (like books on
culture and geography, for example) definitely presume the reader (the
student) knows how to read words like 風呂 and 大阪. The younger the age of the
student the book is being written for, the more frequently you'll see
furigana. The approach/philosophy taken seems to be that through frequent
reading you learn to recognize words and learn how to read those words, later
on you learn more specifically what the kanji mean. I have books on Japanese,
Chinese, and East Asian history targeting high school students: these books
present names of numerous historical figures and cities and towns frequently
enough without even the aid of furigana--some of these names definitely use
kanji outside of the Joyo Kanji list.

I have several elementary school kanji dictionary the oldest of which was
published in 1990. They all list all three of the kanji in question. They're
usually listed in the back of the dictionary as important kanji "outside" of
Joyo-kanji. They are listed there specifically because they are encountered in
textbooks and everyday life (taking a bus across town or a train to a
different town/city). And though now-a-days I'm aware that often there are
furigana, when I was in Japan in the late 80's there were rarely such aids on
public transit. Yet me, a mere foreigner with very little kanji knowledge at
the time, I still managed to figure out how to get to where I wanted as I
headed out on my own to explore and learn something about the history,
geography, and culture of the region. Worst case-scenario, you ask someone.
But the point is, in this process, you learn a lot.

I don't know about things now or how usual this was, but amongst my friends in
Japan, they told me how their folks gave them lists of kanji to memorize
beyond what was being taught in school. (Though it's slightly off topic, my
friends from Hong Kong and Taiwan tell me stories of being expected by their
parents to memorize a hundred new characters every day.)

A number of my Japanese friends told me about how just walking down the
street, their parents would quiz them on the spot to read signs and such. In
fact, when I was staying with a family in Fukuoka when I first started
learning Japanese, they would do this with me too ask me to read signs on
shops and street signs all as a way of practicing reading kanji. It was
challenging, but once you knew what the signs said, every time you walked by
it, it was like a reminder, "Oh yeah, that says ...."

**Responding to Comments**

I wouldn't say the Joyo list is arbitrary at all. The list was created to
facilitate high literacy across the population. There are many historical
factors behind the creation of this list.

Regarding place names and personal names, there are lists of additional kanji
(notably Jinmeiyo Kanji) that may be used for these purposes and these lists
were created at the same time as the Joyo kanji list.

This is something some times frustrating for parents who wish to use a
particular kanji for their child's name (if it's not on the list, the registry
will not accept it as a legal name).

In particular, Joyo Kanji are do not target personal names and place names:
現行の常用漢字表は、人名や地名など主に固有名詞だけに使われる漢字を対象外としている。

Regarding kanji that don't appear (or formerly didn't appear) on these lists,
like 岡 (for the city [福岡]{ふくおか}), all I can say is that on my registration
card--and other official government documents (including documents issued to
me by the post office) from when I arrived in Fukuoka in the late 80's--福岡
appears on all of them. And, in the late 80's 岡 was not on any of these lists
as best I can tell.
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answer