Japanese work kanji

In Japanese, 働 means work or function. 働く (はたらく, hataraku) covers having a job; with a machine or medicine as the subject, it can mean functioning or taking effect. In 悪事を働く, it means committing a bad act—not being employed.

Is 働 Chinese or Japanese?

It is a Japan-made character, also recorded in Chinese references. Japanese dictionaries classify 働 as a 国字 (kokuji), a character created in Japan, and use it in 働く. Chinese reference works list it as a variant of 動; in a Chinese text, it may reflect that variant or Japanese influence, so the Japanese work sense is not automatic.

The verb and the written form have different histories. はたらく is recorded in Utsuho Monogatari, a Japanese tale, around 970–999; that dates the verb, not necessarily this spelling. 働 also appears in medieval Japanese dictionaries.

Later spellings connect the character with labor. Japanese reference works used both 労動 and 労働 in the 1870s; labor-movement writing favored 労働 in the 1890s. A study of Chinese translations records 働 in a 1931 edition and 動 in a later 1974 edition.