Why did Asahi Shinbun write "子{こ}ども" instead of "子供{こども}" in this headline? I just happened across an Asahi Shinbun article with a headline that reads: {}{}{}{} {}{}{}{} (-) Compacting articles as much as possible is a standard practice in every newspaper in the world. Yet, the 3 character long "" was written instead of the 2 character long "". (-) My understanding is that "" in "" is not {}{} If somehow it is, I hope someone can elaborate? "" does not happen after tangible nouns, right? The writer of that headline absolutely has a reason for writing "", but I cannot imagine what it is. Conserving space in a newspaper is paramount, and "" looks good to me. thank you.

The reason is the negativity associated with the plural suffix , which tends to be used in a derogatory way as in []{}, []{}, etc. " **Mouths to feed** " is what could sound/look like and unfortunately that is what the word used to often imply because Japan has not always been a wealthy nation like it is now.

In schools (Japanese schools. of course), I myself never officially learned to write or entirely in kanji -- **never**. I had, for that reason, long been wondering why Japanese-learners write it in kanji. However, in June of 2013, our Ministry of Education changed its mind and announced that it would use in all of its official documents.

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I myself will probably keep writing it as or because old habits die hard, but since last June, we suddenly have every reason to write it as . Newspapers can go either way because they are not official documents issued by the government.