Han and kana characters are usually full-width, whereas latin text is half-width or proportionally spaced.

Half-width katakana characters do exist, and for compatibility reasons there is a Unicode block for half-width kana characters. These codes should not normally be used, however. They arise from the early computing days when Japanese had to be fitted into a Western-biased technology.

Similarly, it is common to find full-width Latin text, especially in tables. Again, there is a Unicode block dedicated to full width Latin characters and punctuation, but a font should be used instead.