Jon,

Asciidoctor PDF does have support for CJK languages. Many of the discussions you cited about problems with it are outdated.

The instructions for how to get the full range of support for CJK can be found in the README here: https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor-pdf#support-for-non-latin-languages, with specific steps listed here: https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor-pdf#create-a-custom-cjk-theme. If you run into problems following those steps, please report an issue and we'll fix it.

The asciidoctor-pdf-cjk-kai_gen_gothic itself is still relevant. Though all it does is download the fonts to your system. You can download the fonts anyway you choose.

I also second @danyill's point about considering Asciidoctor Web PDF. The browser normalizes nearly all the complexities of dealing with fonts, so being able to leverage that platform makes life a whole lot simpler.

Best Regards,

-Dan