What is furigana?

Furigana is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of small kana characters or romaji above or beside kanji characters to indicate their pronunciation. Furigana is often used in children's books or material for learners to help with reading difficult kanji characters. It can also be used in textbooks, comic books, or newspapers to help readers understand the pronunciation of less common characters. Furigana can be written in hiragana, katakana, or romaji and is typically used for difficult or less common kanji characters that may be unfamiliar to the reader.