Google Chrome Font Issues

Not 100% this is the correct place to put this, so please move it if not.

I recently came to realize that my computer is using weird fonts on the WaniKani forums for Japanese. For example 海、直、and a few others look different from how they do most other places. Up until now I just dealt with it because I figured it was nothing more than a font disparity, rather than actual old-style writings.

I’ve tried using the Chrome “advanced font settings” extension, as well as Skyfonts, but no matter what I do I can’t get the font to change here. Does anyone know how to fix this? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Screenshot attached for reference.

Edit to add: This is the case even on my work computer (which I’m currently using and posted from) which is in a Japanese school and on a Japanese OS, so I’m at a loss for why this is the case to begin with.

Do these show up different on your computer?
Chinese version: 海 直
Japanese version: 海 直

They’re the same kanji, but I’ve wrapped them in a tag to specify what language is being used, and the browser draws them accordingly.

If a web page doesn’t specify what language is being used, the browser often assumes Chinese. If the web site specifies that the language is Japanese, the Japanese version of the kanji will be used. I think Wanikani may have set the default language to Japanese on the forums.

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Yep, those are showing up differently on my end. I’ve seen that Chrome is weird about mixing up Chinese and Japanese fonts, I just don’t know how to go about fixing it as it seems my browser, despite being in Japan on Japanese OS, seems to be stuck in Chinese mode.

What operating system are you using? I’ve found that certain OS distributions will override chrome’s ability to localize fonts correctly.

It’s running on Windows 10 Pro, v1803

Update: Found a fix of sorts. If you add the extension at this link, all pages in Chrome (so far as I can tell) are overridden with an easier to read Japanese font.

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