The following is a comparison of Chinese characters in the Standard Form of National Characters, a common traditional Chinese standard used in Taiwan; the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Chángyòng Zìbiǎo, the standard for Mainland Chinese simplified Chinese characters; and the jōyō kanji, the standard for Japanese kanji. "Simplified" refers to having significant differences from the Taiwan standard, not necessarily being a newly created character or a newly performed substitution. The characters in the Hong Kong standard and the Kangxi Dictionary are also known as "Traditional," but are not shown.

Comparisons of traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters, and simplified Japanese characters in their modern standardized forms [a]
Traditional ChineseSimplified ChineseJapanesemeaning
Simplified in mainland China, not Japan
(Some radicals were simplified)
electricity
buy
open
east
car, vehicle
red (crimson in Japanese)
horse
nothing
bird
hot
time
spoken language
Simplified in Japan, not Mainland China
(In some cases this represents the adoption
of different variants as standard)
provisional
Tin can
Buddha
favour
moral, virtue
kowtow, pray to, worship
black
ice
rabbit
jealousy
Simplified differently in Mainland China and Japanlisten
real
certificate, proof
dragon
sell
turtle, tortoise
art, arts
fight, war
rope
to close, relationship
iron, metal
picture, diagram
group, regiment
turn
广wide, broad
bad, evil
abundant
brain
miscellaneous
pressure, compression
chicken
price
fun
air
hall, office
Simplified identically in Mainland China and Japansound, voice
learn
body
dot, point
cat
insect
old
can (verb), meeting
ten-thousand
thief
treasure
country
medicine
wheat
pair
contact
This table is merely a brief sample, not a complete listing.