kuten

Kuten, or 句点, is the sentence-ending punctuation mark used in Japanese writing. It marks the end of a sentence and is written as the symbol 。, a full-width dot that appears in both horizontal and vertical text. It is the counterpart to the Western period and is distinct from the comma-like 読点 (、), which is used to separate clauses within sentences.

Japanese punctuation relies on two main marks: 句点 and 読点 (、). The 句点 appears at the end of sentences, after kanji, kana, or numerals, and serves to signal a full stop much as a period does in Latin script. In contrast, the 読点 is used to indicate a pause or separation within a sentence.

Typography and encoding: In digital text, the 句点 is represented by the ideographic full stop character, commonly referred to as the “。” mark. In Unicode, it is U+3002. In many Japanese fonts, the character has a rounded dot with a distinct box-like silhouette. Some contexts use a fullwidth version of the dot (．) for alignment with other fullwidth characters.

Origin and usage: The use of punctuation in Japan was influenced by Chinese writing and later standardized during modernization of typesetting in the Meiji era. Today, 句点 is universally used in formal and informal writing, including newspapers, books, and websites. The term kuten is the on’yomi reading of 句点 and is used in linguistic and typographic discussion to refer to this mark.