Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Han character
     
         (From the Han dynasty, 206 B.C.E to 25 C.E.)  One
        of the set of {glyphs} common to Chinese (where they are
        called "hanzi"), Japanese (where they are called {kanji}), and
        Korean (where they are called {hanja}).
     
        Han characters are generally described as "ideographic", i.e.,
        picture-writing; but see the reference below.
     
        Modern Korean, Chinese and Japanese {fonts} may represent a
        given Han character as somewhat different glyphs.  However, in
        the formulation of {Unicode}, these differences were {folded},
        in order to conserve the number of {code positions} necessary
        for all of {CJK}.  This unification is referred to as "Han
        Unification", with the resulting character repertoire
        sometimes referred to as "Unihan".
     
        {Unihan reference at the Unicode Consortium
        (http://charts.unicode.org/unihan.html)}.
     
        [John DeFrancis, "The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy",
        University of Hawaii Press, 1984].
     
        (1998-10-18)