The Ideographic Rapporteur Group (IRG) advises the Unicode Consortium and the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 on Han character additions to the repertoire of the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646-1 (Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set) character set standards, and on Han unification. The working members of the IRG are either appointed by member governments, or are invited experts from other countries. Member nations include China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

The IRG has contributed several blocks of characters to Unicode/UCS, including the CJK Unified Ideographs, CJK Compatibility Ideographs, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B, and others. CJK Unified Ideographs Extension C is in preparation.

Note that the accusation that Unicode may destroy Asian countries' culture is countered by the fact that decisions on Han Unification are made primarily by Asian experts. Similarly, the fact that the Unicode Consortium and ISO/IEC 10646-1 decided to unify Han characters before the creation of the IRG, is countered by the fact that this decision was made by Asian members of both organizations.

External links

• IRG Page
• IRG working documents

References