Ateji (当て字 ) 'guessed characters' are Kanji selected to write a borrowed non-Chinese or native Japanese word with the intent of implying an etymology, which is fanciful or false. For instance, kurabu 'club', a loanword from English, is sometimes written 倶楽部 because (1) the Kanji can be read in sequence as ku, ra(ku), and bu, and (2) can be interpreted loosely in sequence as 'together', 'fun', 'place'. Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Kanji (漢字, literally characters from Han China; see also Han Chinese) are Chinese characters used in Japanese. ...

See also: Nanori. In the Japanese language many names are constructed from common kanji characters with standard spelling and pronunciation. ...