Intuitive or logical way to know when to use a kanji spelling vs hiragana spelling?

Question

A recurring theme on this site is that foreign learners of Japanese use too much kanji. Often the reaction is puzzlement that we can't "just know the right way". Native speakers literally say they don't understand why we use too much kanji:

... Why you always write things in kanji, I never understand.

Since native speakers can't understand why we do it, there must be some intuitive or logical way to know.

Is it as simple as "If the word uses any non-Joyo kanji then hiragana is probably best"?

Or is it that if we can tell it's ateji then hiragana is to be preferred these days?

Or are these just two of several factors involved in deciding?

For example, the last word this came up with for me was "まめ" meaning "blister", which has the following kanji spelling which I don't think uses non-Joyo characters but I think probably is ateji: 肉刺

Answer 1

Here are two possible guidelines:

1. Follow existing practice. Write things the same way you see other people do it. The large majority of native speakers have been exposed to a lot of written language, and they can often follow existing practice without putting much thought into it.

   Not everyone writes everything the same way, so expect to find a fair amount of variation. Most people do follow certain practices, though—you'll rarely find function words written in kanji, for example, with only a few exceptions.

   And of course, you can always consult a corpus such as BCCWJ if you're curious about how a particular word is written.

2. Following prescriptive rules. You can buy a dictionary such as the NHK漢字表記辞典 and follow its suggestions when you aren't sure. Or you could try not to use readings and kanji that aren't on the official Jōyō kanji chart. But there are many kanji on the chart with readings you'll never see people use—when was the last time you saw someone use the kanji 虞?

   Some dictionaries give information about how individual words are written, especially monolingual dictionaries. Many mark non-Jōyō characters or readings—check the 凡例 section or front cover to find which symbols a particular dictionary uses. EDICT marks words that are "usually kana" with the abbreviation "uk".

Any way you do it will involve a lot of memorization. But the more you interact with the written language, the more you'll get a feel for which words are written which ways. If you aren't sure the kanji are correct or commonly used, you can do one of the following:

1. Look it up.

2. Use kana instead.

3. Use furigana.

Just remember that you're trying to communicate and that just about everyone can read kana, but not everyone can read rare kanji or unusual readings. People will understand if you write something in kana, even if that's not how it's usually written.