Fullwidth Equals Sign

Equality in formulas; a name break in some katakana spellings.

In a formula, ＝ has the same mathematical role as the familiar narrow = sign. Japanese text layout may give equals and other mathematical signs one full character cell so they align with Japanese writing.

In foreign names written in katakana, the Japanese syllabary used for many such names, ＝ can mark a break between name parts rather than equality.

Why is ＝ wider than =?

It belongs to mixed-width Japanese computing.

Older Japanese text encodings often arranged Japanese characters in two-cell slots while basic Latin text used single-byte slots. Wide and narrow forms of familiar signs helped the sets fit together and convert between character sets. East Asian width is a layout category, not a promise of a fixed displayed width; the font and text layout also matter.

Japan's JIS C 6226, a character-set standard established in 1978, is an early milestone in this computing history. Unicode treats ＝ as a compatibility form of ASCII =, preserving the wide text form alongside the narrow sign.

Why does ＝ appear in Japanese names?

Between katakana name parts, it marks a break.

Japanese has a dedicated double-hyphen mark, ゠, for dividing foreign-name spellings. Some older Japanese encodings omitted it, and it could be harder to enter. As of 2026, ＝ remains a practical substitute in Japanese transliteration, although many foreign names use a middle dot instead. It is a convention, not a universal separator.

Use the surrounding text to choose the reading: in an equation it means equality; inside a foreign name it marks a break. When exact Japanese punctuation matters, ゠ is the dedicated character.