Japanese Font Question

[Onji]

Hello.

Designing something based on the word 'Onji' and was looking through Japanese fonts wondering what they are associated with.

Some reading I did suggested certain fonts are associated with different activities/businesses etc, so there are fonts often used for sumo or sushi etc (correct?)

I would like to find a neutral font, something like a Japanese equivalent of Helvetica (modern, clean, sans-serif).

Any ideas? (anything in system fonts?)

I don't want to find a font I like then discover later it's normally used by shoe shops or something :-)

Here's one I quite like, just not sure if it's acceptable or not (might be like comic sans in Japan for all I know :-(



Any advice appreciated :-)

Oh also wondered if the Japanese characters are somewhat obscure as some Japanese fonts I downloaded don't seem to have them?

[MMM]

I think that font is fine.

[KyleGoetz]

1. Assuming, since Helvetica is sans-serif, that you also want sans-serif, the typical fonts are the "Gothic" fonts. East Asian sans-serif typeface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. I'd say the equivalent of a Times (New Roman), a serif, is Mincho, which is very often used in newspapers in Japan, China, and Korea. Ming (typeface) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ming is another very, very popular serif font.

3. Neither 音 nor 字 are obscure. They are probably both in the top 100 kanji used in Japanese. Definitely top 500.

4. Finally, there are plenty of good Japanese fonts that come on XP, Vista, OS X, and Linux already. Unless you're designing for Japanese print, you very likely do not need to worry about getting kerning and such right for Asian characters in a western publication. Gothic and Mincho both appear in Windows as MS Mincho and MS Gothic. OS X has Mincho and Gothic fonts as well. Just open Font Book.app and search for "Hiragino."

[Onji]

Thanks very much for the replies. I'll have a look at those fonts you listed Kyle.

I like the one I've got so it's good to know it's a fairly standard or neutral one.

BTW does anyone know what the little bump is on the left character (towards the top right under the top vertical line).

Is it supposed to be there?

I tried drawing the characters with a sharpie but it didn't look very good. I need to use a brush but I've got no idea which direction the lines should be painted. Think I'll stick to a digital font unless I run into someone who can do brush calligraphy properly.

Also I hope I'm alright using the word 'Onji' as apparently it's not used in Japan any more and is somewhat controversial (means 'sound-symbol' apparently, but is only used in English language discussion about Haikus).

Thanks again.