Halfwidth Katakana Letter Na

It is the half-width form of ナ, read “na.”

The narrow shape changes the text form, not the syllable. JIS C 6220-1969, later renamed JIS X 0201, is an early standard anchor for this computer form. Its limited code space placed katakana and punctuation in the single-byte side of Japanese computer text.

This let early fixed grids place katakana beside Latin characters without giving each one a full square cell. Later JIS X 0208 and Shift JIS also represented full-width kana; Unicode preserves the paired forms for compatibility. A fixed-pitch East Asian font may give ﾅ half a cell, but the font and layout determine its actual display width.

When should I use ﾅ instead of ナ?

Use ﾅ when a format requires it or for deliberate retro styling.

In modern Japanese computing, half-width kana remain in some legacy financial and input systems. Japanese web users may also use them in ASCII art, kaomoji, or old-computer styling.

For ordinary Japanese prose, use ナ. The choice changes formatting or visual style, not pronunciation. When widths are mixed, read the kana normally; check the field’s requirements if the distinction matters.

How do I type ﾅ?

In Microsoft Japanese IME, type ナ and press F8.

Microsoft Japanese IME documentation lists F8 for converting a selection to half-width Katakana and also offers a Half-width Katakana input mode. Other Japanese input methods may provide a similar conversion.