Halfwidth Katakana Letter Mo

Use a Japanese IME’s half-width conversion. In Microsoft Japanese IME, type the reading and press F8 to convert the current input to half-width katakana.

You can also choose Half-width Katakana from the input-mode menu. Other IMEs may use a different shortcut, so look for that mode name.

What does ﾓ mean?

It is the same Japanese syllable as モ, in a legacy-width form. The documented electronic lineage starts with JIS C 6220-1969, later renamed JIS X 0201. Its limited code space carried katakana in a single-byte Japanese set for computing and telecommunications; fixed-width display practice gave those kana the narrow look now called half-width.

As larger Japanese character sets arrived, fullwidth JIS X 0208 katakana and single-byte JIS X 0201 kana became related forms in systems such as Shift_JIS. Unicode keeps ﾓ as a compatibility form of モ. NFKC compatibility normalization can fold them together for matching, but it can also erase the width distinction.

Should I use ﾓ or モ?

Use ﾓ only when the receiving format expects half-width kana. Field rules differ: the MHLW input form warns against half-width kana to prevent garbling, while Japanese tax e-filing guidance requires tax-name kana in half-width characters. Follow the receiving field’s rule.

Use モ for ordinary Japanese prose. The half-width form is a data-format choice, not a different pronunciation.