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ｱ

halfwidth katakana letter a

Halfwidth Katakana Letter A

ｱ is the halfwidth form of Katakana ア, read “a.” It remains in compatibility text and in fields that request hankaku Katakana. Its narrow shape comes from Japanese one-byte encoding history; it does not change the reading.

Text symbol
Search it as
hankaku · 半角カナ · one-byte kana · narrow Katakana · ｱ
Shows up in
Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What ｱ means

Same reading as ア, in a narrower form. JIS X 0201, a Japanese character standard dated 1969, included one-byte Katakana for early computer systems. Later mixed-width encodings and Unicode retained these forms for compatibility.

The reading stayed the same while the format’s job changed. Use ア in ordinary Japanese text; use ｱ when a form or older record asks for hankaku Katakana. A 2016 Fukuoka Bank guide and a Japanese court data specification document such requirements.

Technical or form-bound: it signals a width requirement, not extra emotion.

Use ア in ordinary prose unless a form asks for hankaku Katakana.

Don't confuse it with

1
ア
Katakana Letter A
This is the fullwidth Katakana form with the same reading, used in ordinary text.

Questions people ask

1

Why did a Japanese form reject it?

It may require a particular width. Follow the field’s instruction: some systems require halfwidth Katakana, while others convert between widths.

How to type ｱ

Windows (Word)
Alt+XType FF71, then Alt+X to get ｱ.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “halfwidth katakana letter a”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType ff71, then Enter or Space.
HTML
ｱ
CSS
\FF71
Japanese IME
Enter ア, then choose your input method’s halfwidth-Katakana conversion; the command varies.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
ｱ
HTML hex
ｱ
CSS content
content: "\FF71";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%EF%BD%B1
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

1

Chinese, Japanese & Korean121,370 symbols

ᄀᄁᄂᄃᄄᄅᄆᄇᄈᄉᄊᄋ