JIS X 0208

JIS X 0208 is a 2-byte character set specified as a Japanese Industrial Standard, containing 6879 graphic characters suitable for writing text, place names, personal names, and so forth in the Japanese language. The official title of the current standard is 7-bit and 8-bit double byte coded KANJI sets for information interchange (7ビット及び8ビットの2バイト情報交換用符号化漢字集合, Nana-Bitto Oyobi Hachi-Bitto no Ni-Baito Jōhō Kōkan'yō Fugōka Kanji Shūgō?). It was originally established as JIS C 6226 in 1978, and has been revised in 1983, 1990, and 1997.

Read more about JIS X 0208:  Scope of Use and Compatibility, Code Structure, History, Implementations