41985
Due to [Han unification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification), the
same code point represents the Chinese (T/S), Japanese and Korean variants of
a given character. The rendered glyph is determined by locale, lang tag (web)
or similar. If a variable like this is misconfigured, it can lead to confusion
or irritation with natives and misunderstandings with learners.

One such character is 噌 like in 味噌{みそ}. Source Han Sans renders it as
![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AG0V2.png) but MS Gothic on XP renders it as
![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4fzUq.png). This led me to wonder which one is
actually correct.

There are characters for both variants of the right-hand side of 噌; 曾 and 曽. 曽
is more common according to Jim Breen's KANJIDIC.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-26T03:04:01.650
41983
2016-12-26T04:47:26.623
2016-12-26T04:41:19.973
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question
kanji computing kyūjitai-and-shinjitai
噌 variants in different fonts
It's off-topic, but upgrading OS is recommended as Windows XP support is
already terminated.

The reason why the glyphs differ is because the rule changed in 2004, after
the release of XP. The following chart (from
[WP](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/JIS_X_0213#JIS_X_0213:2004.E3.81.AE.E6.94.B9.E6.AD.A3))
would be the summary.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/88C9t.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/88C9t.gif)

The second from left of row 4 is the 噌. It becomes rendered in more
traditional shape since 2004. The JIS standard decided to conform their
representational glyphs to 表外漢字字体表 publicized by the Agency for Cultural
Affairs. Before that, no official stipulation for those not in 常用漢字 so JIS
committee chose glyphs on their own (see [my another post to Why wasn't 欒
simplified to 栾, when 戀 was simplified to
恋?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/19806/7810)). All fonts shipped with
succeeding OSes since Vista should match the new form.

The glyph change is only normative to printed characters. Both shapes are
recognized in handwriting and people usually choose the simpler one.

**UPDATE**  
[The download page of JIS2004 conformative fonts for
XP](https://support.microsoft.com/ja-jp/kb/927489) (in Japanese)
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answer