「 」

The usage of ⟨「」⟩ as quotation marks developed from Japanese literature, initially having been used to enclose special words such as foreign words or citations beginning around the 18th century.^[1]

「 」 (English name corner bracket)

1. Encloses a quotation in CJK languages.

「 」

1. (Taiwan) Encloses a quotation.
2. (Mainland China, vertical writing) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.

• With vertical text, Mainland China and Taiwan have opposite conventions of whether or 『 』 is primary. The traditional convention has been reversed on the mainland to parallel the more common usage of outer “ ” and inner ‘ ’.

• 『 』 / ‘ ’

「 」

1. Encloses a quotation.
2. Encloses the title of a work, such as book, movie, etc.
3. (video games, visual novels) Encloses character dialogue.
4. (obsolete) In kanji-katakana mixed writing before World War II, encloses 外来語 (gairaigo, “foreign loanwords”) written in katakana to mark them apart from ordinary katakana portions of the text.
   • 1905, https://web.archive.org/web/20201203234251/http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/mgda/waei/topics/jokun.html

     和英字典ノ著者「ジェー、シー、ヘボン」ガ多年我國ニ在リ文化ノ進歩ニ貢献シタル所多キハ勿論

     The author of the Japanese-English dictionary, J. C. Hepburn, has stayed at our country for many years, and it goes without saying that he has made much contribution to the advancement of our culture…

   • 1945, Rinosuke Ichimaru, ルーズベルトニ与フル書:

     日本海軍、市丸海軍少将、書ヲ「フランクリン ルーズベルト」君ニ致ス。

     Rear Admiral R. Ichimaru of the Japanese Navy sends this note to Franklin Roosevelt.

• An embedded quotation is set off with 『 』, within 「 」 for the outer quotation.