Jogai

Jogai, romanized as jogai or jōgai, is a Japanese term meaning exclusion. Written with the kanji 除外, it denotes the act of omitting or removing items, persons, or categories from a set, scope, rule, calculation, or program. The concept appears across many fields and disciplines.

Originating from the characters 除 (remove) and 外 (outside), jogai is used both in formal documents and everyday language to indicate something that lies outside the defined boundary of a rule or study.

In legal, administrative, and policy contexts, jogai defines what is not included within a scheme. Examples include the exclusion of non-residents from welfare programs, or exclusions from a tax base or budget calculation. In statistics and data processing, items that do not meet criteria or quality standards may be treated as jogai or excluded from analysis.

In clinical research, exclusion criteria are 除外基準 (jōgai kijun), which specify who is not eligible to participate in a study. Similar uses appear in insurance and consumer policy, where certain events, conditions, or items are listed as exclusions from coverage or applicability.

Outside of formal documents, jogai can also refer broadly to any boundary or scope limitation that excludes certain elements from consideration. See also exclusion, exclusion criteria, and exclusion in policy and data contexts.