Katakana Middle Dot

Try the slash key with Japanese input active. If it produces /, check your input mode or keyboard settings.

With Japanese input set to accept Latin letters, enter nakaguro or nakaten, Japanese names for the mark, and convert the text; select ・ if offered. Or copy it from the palette.

What does ・ separate?

It separates terms, not sentences. It makes word boundaries visible in names and phrases written in katakana, the Japanese script commonly used for foreign words.

Do not sprinkle dots into every compound borrowed word. Follow the established spelling in your field or publication.

An old name does not date the punctuation

Western typography and translation helped standardize Japanese punctuation during the Meiji period (1868–1912). That broader change does not establish a birth date for ・.

The name 中黒 appears in the 14th-century Taiheiki, a Japanese war chronicle, but there it denotes a banner emblem—not punctuation.