In the Japanese version of Windows, the commonly used fonts are “Yu Gothic” (游ゴシック) and “Meiryo” (メイリオ), as well as the interface fonts “Yu Gothic UI” and “Meiryo UI”. The UI fonts are narrow-width fonts designed for menu display.
Until Windows 8.1, the system fonts for the Japanese version of Windows were “Meiryo” and “Meiryo UI” for interface, but from Windows 10 onwards, they have been replaced with “Yu Gothic” and “Yu Gothic UI”. However, “Yu Gothic” itself seems to have been included as a standard font since Windows 8.1.
“Yu Gothic” is also available on Mac OS X Mavericks and later, making it a font that can be used on both Windows and Mac. However, there is no equivalent of “Yu Gothic UI” for Mac. And the font names are slightly different.
“Yu Gothic” is currently considered the best font, but for compatibility with Windows 8 and earlier, “Meiryo” is recommended.
Font details are as follows:
- Yu Gothic: Windows 8.1 and later, Mac OS X Mavericks and later
- Yu Gothic UI: Windows 10 and later
- Meiryo: Windows Vista and later
- Meiryo UI: Windows 7 and later
Notes on Yu Gothic:
- The default weight is Regular on Windows and Medium on Mac, so it may become difficult to read on Windows if Medium is not specified.
- The font names are slightly different between Windows and Mac:
- English: “Yu Gothic” (Win) / “YuGothic” (Mac)
- Japanese: “游ゴシック” (Win) / “游ゴシック体” (Mac)
Here is a sample of how it looks on Windows version Chrome.
.YuGothicMedium {
font-family: "Yu Gothic Medium", "游ゴシック Medium";
/* for compatibility with both Windows and Mac */
/* font-family: "Yu Gothic Medium", "游ゴシック Medium", "YuGothic", "游ゴシック体"; */
}
.YuGothicRegular {
font-family: "Yu Gothic", "游ゴシック";
}
.YuGothicUI {
font-family: "Yu Gothic UI";
}
.Meiryo {
font-family: "Meiryo", "メイリオ";
}
.MeiryoUI {
font-family: "Meiryo UI";
}
