Why do Japanese newspapers add hiragana readings to uncommon kanji?

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Japanese calligraphy — Japanese language Record of a haiku exchange on *kaishi* writing paper by Japanese poet Bashō and one of his pupils in the teacher's own handwriting, 17th century, from a hanging scroll (ink on paper).

In Japanese newspapers, hiragana readings—often called furigana—are added to uncommon or complex kanji to ensure readability and accessibility for a broad audience.

Because the Japanese language writing system is highly complex, requiring knowledge of approximately 2,000 characters just to read a newspaper, these phonetic hiragana characters serve as a guide for pronunciation. This practice helps readers navigate ideograms that may be obscure, specialized, or outside of common daily usage, thereby maintaining clear communication across different levels of literacy.1