亜 means “sub-, next, Asia”

あ · a

Also: rank next, come after, -ous

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

つぐ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ア

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes

The story

A squat box propped between two lines (一) top and bottom: picture the second shelf, just under the best. 亜 means next in rank: 亜熱帯 is the subtropics, 亜鉛, "next to lead", is zinc, and 亜細亜 once spelled Asia, so 東亜 is East Asia.

Used in 亜熱帯 (anettai, subtropics), 亜鉛 (aen, zinc), and 東亜 (toua, East Asia)

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.