Kin

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

160 monme, exactly 600 g. A traditional Japanese unit of weight, equal to 600 g.

1 kin = 0.6 kilograms (exactly).

About the kin

Kin is the Japanese unit that older English sources call the catty. In Japan it was defined as 160 monme, or 16 hundredths of a kan.

After the 1891 Weights and Measures Act tied the kan to exactly 3.75 kg, the kin became exactly 600 g, which is the figure used here. That makes it about 1.32 pounds, a convenient size for everyday goods bought in modest quantities, and it is still the size commonly used for loaves of bread.

Japan moved to the metric system as the sole legal system from 1959, and trade use of the kin was prohibited. The older unit remains familiar to many Japanese shoppers as a size of 600 g.

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Kan

Kin conversion chart

1 kin expressed in every other weight & mass unit:

More Japanese units

• monme (weight & mass)
• kan (weight & mass)
• sun (length)
• shaku (length)
• ken (length)
• jō (length)
• chō (length)
• ri (Japanese) (length)
• gō (volume)
• shō (volume)
• tō (volume)
• koku (volume)
• jō (tatami mat) (area)
• tsubo (area)
• se (area)
• tan (area)

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