Japanese Quotation Marks: How Corner Brackets Work

Japanese quotation marks look like corner brackets:

「　」　『　』

The ordinary pair is 「」, called かぎ括弧（かぎかっこ）. It marks dialogue, direct quotations, and sometimes words being discussed. The double pair 『』, called 二重かぎ括弧（にじゅうかぎかっこ）, is commonly used for a quotation inside another quotation and, under many editorial styles, for titles such as books or films.

If you only need the symbols, copy them here:

Scroll sideways to see every column.

This guide focuses on quotation marks, not every punctuation symbol in Japanese. For sentence order and particles, use our Japanese sentence structure guide.

A common nesting pattern: 「」 outside, 『』 inside

A widely used publishing and translation style uses 「」 for the main quotation:

先生は「明日は休みです」と言いました。

The teacher said, “Tomorrow is a day off.”

When quoted speech contains another quotation, switch the inner pair to 『』:

友達は「先生が『明日は休みです』と言った」と教えてくれた。

My friend told me, “The teacher said, ‘Tomorrow is a day off.’”

The visual pattern is:

「 外側 『 内側 』 外側 」

This pattern is common, but it is not universal. The Japan Translation Federation uses 「…『…』…」, while current Japanese government public-document guidance may repeat 「」 for the nested level. When reading, follow the source’s pattern; when writing, follow the relevant house style.

What goes inside 「」?

1. Dialogue and direct speech

In stories, manga, visual novels, and game dialogue, 「」 marks a character’s spoken words:

「ここで待って！」 — “Wait here!”

「準備はいい？」 — “Are you ready?”

These are constructed teaching examples, not lines from a published game or manga.

A new speaker often starts a new paragraph or speech bubble. The marks show where the spoken line begins and ends; the surrounding layout tells you who is speaking. Manga speech balloons can also omit quotation marks entirely because the balloon already marks the speech boundary.

2. A direct quotation followed by と

Japanese often places the quotation before the particle と, then adds a verb such as 言う（いう, to say）, 聞く（きく, to hear/ask）, or 思う（おもう, to think）.

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Notice that と sits outside the closing mark:

「行きます」＋ と ＋ 言った

Casual speech often uses って instead of quotation と:

彼は「あとで行く」って言ってた。

He said he’d go later.

The sentence may translate more naturally as indirect speech in English, even though the Japanese preserves the quoted wording.

3. A word, label, or phrase being discussed

Writers can put a term in 「」 when they are talking about the expression itself:

「もったいない」は英語に訳しにくい言葉です。

“Mottainai” is a word that is difficult to translate into English.

Games also use quotes around menu labels or named actions:

「はい」を選んでください。

Please select “Yes.”

That does not mean the menu item was spoken aloud. The marks identify the exact on-screen label.

When do you use 『』?

A quotation inside a quotation

This is a common use of 『』 under many publishing and translation styles. Think of it as a second quotation level:

母は「店員さんが『今日は安いですよ』と言っていた」と話した。

My mother said, “The clerk was saying, ‘It’s cheap today.’”

Read it from the outside inward:

1. 「 starts what the mother said.
2. 『 starts the clerk’s words inside her report.
3. 』 ends the clerk’s words.
4. 」 ends the mother’s complete quotation.

English changes from double quotes to single quotes for the inner level. Japanese changes from 「」 to 『』.

Titles under common editorial styles

Many Japanese publishers and libraries use a convention like this:

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This is an editorial convention, not a universal grammar law. Newspapers, publishers, academic styles, game interfaces, and databases can choose different rules. When writing for a school, publication, or workplace, follow its style guide. When reading, use the brackets as a clue rather than assuming the type of work with absolute certainty.

Japanese quotes do not work exactly like English quotes

Japanese normally uses corner brackets, not curly quotation marks

English typography commonly uses “ ” and ‘ ’. Japanese horizontal text normally uses 「」 and 『』. Straight ASCII quotes (") sometimes appear in code, imported text, or a visual design, but they are not the standard Japanese quotation marks.

The particle comes after the closing mark

With quoted speech, と or casual って follows 」:

• Correct pattern: 「行こう」と言った。
• Not the pattern: 「行こうと」言った。

The particle connects the entire quotation to the speech or thought verb.

A comma before the quote is not required

English often writes She said, “...” with a comma. Japanese can move directly from the subject/topic into the quote:

彼は「また明日」と言った。

Do not add a comma merely because the English translation has one.

The final full stop varies by house style

You may encounter both patterns:

「また明日」 — No full stop immediately before the closing mark

「また明日。」 — Full stop retained inside the quotation

Japanese style authorities and publishers do not all make the same choice for every genre. Fiction dialogue often omits the full stop immediately before 」, while formal quotations may preserve source punctuation. Question marks and exclamation marks are commonly retained when they express the quoted line’s force:

• 「本当に？」
• 「逃げろ！」

As a learner, do not “correct” published text to match a single internet rule. First identify the publication’s pattern and follow it consistently in your own writing.

Horizontal and vertical Japanese text

The same quotation characters work in horizontal and vertical writing. In vertical text, the font and layout system rotate or position them for the writing direction.

You do not need to find a separate set of vertical quotation marks. Type 「」 or 『』 normally and let the Japanese-capable layout engine handle orientation.

The W3C Requirements for Japanese Text Layout documents how Japanese punctuation behaves across writing directions and at line boundaries. For learners, the practical rule is simple:

• recognize the same pair even when its visual orientation changes;
• read from the opening mark to its matching closing mark;
• do not separate an opening bracket from the text that follows or a closing bracket from the text before it when formatting manually.

How to type Japanese quotation marks

With a Japanese IME

On Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, or Android, switch to Japanese input and try either method:

1. Type かぎかっこ and convert it to 「」.
2. Type にじゅうかぎかっこ and convert it to 『』.
3. Many IMEs also offer the symbols when you type かっこ and open the conversion candidates.

Exact candidate order differs between input methods. If conversion is slow, copy the pair from the table at the top of this page and save it in your notes.

In code and structured text

The four marks are ordinary Unicode characters:

「 U+300C
」 U+300D
『 U+300E
』 U+300F

Use UTF-8 and keep the opening and closing character in the correct order. The Unicode CJK Symbols and Punctuation chart is the authoritative code-point reference.

How quotation marks help when reading manga and games

Quotation marks are more than decoration. They expose the structure of a line before you know every word.

Consider this constructed game message:

「古い鍵」を手に入れた！

Obtained the “Old Key”!

Even if 手に入れた is new to you, the brackets tell you that 古い鍵（ふるいかぎ） is the exact item name. That lets you separate the object label from the action.

Now compare dialogue:

村人は「北の森に行くな」と言った。

The villager said, “Don’t go to the northern forest.”

A useful parsing routine is:

1. Box the text inside 「」.
2. Look immediately after 」 for と or って.
3. Find the speech/thought verb: 言う, 聞く, 思う, 書く, or another reporting verb.
4. Parse the quoted sentence on its own.
5. Then reconnect it to the outer sentence.

For character voice after you have found the quote boundaries, read our guide to yakuwarigo and Japanese character speech. For expressive sound text outside speech, use the Japanese manga onomatopoeia guide. For the broader reading workflow, see how to start reading manga in Japanese. If the quote boundaries are clear but casual wording still feels unfamiliar, compare textbook Japanese with manga Japanese.

Common beginner mistakes

Mixing the pairs

Each opening mark must match its own closing mark:

Reversing the marks

The opening mark is 「 and the closing mark is 」. If you type them separately, it is easy to reverse them. Insert the whole pair first, then place the cursor between them.

Treating 『』 as “more important”

The double pair does not automatically mean shouting, emphasis, or a more important statement. Its clearest structural job is the inner level of a quotation. Title usage depends on editorial style.

Assuming every bracket is a quotation

Japanese also uses brackets such as （）, ［］, and 【】. In games, 【】 often frames a heading, category, speaker label, or alert:

【クエスト更新】

That is a display label, not necessarily quoted speech. Read the surrounding layout before assigning a grammatical function.

Reading through the boundary

When a long sentence feels impossible, temporarily replace the quoted section with one box:

友達は ［引用］ と言った。

First understand “My friend said [quotation].” Then open the box and parse the quotation. This prevents nested grammar from overwhelming working memory.

Quick practice

1. Find the exact quoted words

妹は「このゲームは面白い」と言った。

Which text is the sister’s direct statement?

2. Find the inner speaker

父は「店の人が『もう閉店です』と言った」と話した。

Which words belong to the store employee?

3. Identify the label

「つづきから」を選ぶ。

Is つづきから necessarily spoken dialogue, or is it an exact menu label?

Japanese quotation marks FAQ

What are Japanese quotation marks called?

「」 are かぎ括弧（かぎかっこ）. 『』 are 二重かぎ括弧（にじゅうかぎかっこ）.

Why does Japanese use 「」 instead of “ ”?

Corner brackets are the conventional quotation marks in modern Japanese text. They are encoded as dedicated Unicode characters and work in both horizontal and vertical layout.

What is the difference between 「」 and 『』?

Use 「」 for the main quotation or dialogue. Use 『』 for a quotation nested inside 「」. Many editorial styles also use 『』 for standalone-work titles and 「」 for contained-work titles, but that title distinction is not universal.

Does と go inside or outside Japanese quotation marks?

Outside: 「行く」と言った. The particle と connects the complete quotation to the reporting verb.

Should 。 go before 」?

It depends on genre and house style. Fiction dialogue often omits a full stop immediately before 」, while formal quotation styles may retain punctuation. Follow the source or the style guide you are writing under.

How do I type 「」 and 『』?

With Japanese input enabled, convert かぎかっこ to 「」 and にじゅうかぎかっこ to 『』. You can also copy the symbols from the table at the top of this article.

Turn bracket recognition into reading speed

The most useful habit is not memorizing a long punctuation list. It is recognizing structure instantly:

• 「」: main quotation, dialogue, or exact label;
• 『』: quotation inside a quotation, plus title use in many styles;
• と / って after 」: the quote connects to a speech or thought verb;
• layout around the quote: tells you whether it is dialogue, a menu label, a title, or a discussed term.

When you encounter these patterns in a game or manga, save the whole line, not just one word. Review the quotation boundary, the particle after it, and the reporting verb together.

Use LevelKana’s Japanese games to practise kana recognition until you can spend your attention on sentence structure rather than decoding each character. Then return to real dialogue and apply the five-step parsing routine above.

References

• Japan Translation Federation: JTF Japanese Standard Style Guide — uses 「…『…』…」 for nested quotation and documents quotation/title conventions for Japanese translation.
• Agency for Cultural Affairs: 公用文作成の考え方（建議） — current Japanese public-writing guidance, including a house style that may repeat 「」 at the nested level.
• W3C: Requirements for Japanese Text Layout — technical reference for Japanese brackets, line breaking, and horizontal/vertical layout.
• Unicode: CJK Symbols and Punctuation — code-point chart for 「」 and 『』.
• National Diet Library reference record on かぎ括弧 — source trail on quotation-mark conventions and their history in Japanese writing.