This probably counts as an esoteric question even if you are Japanese, but here we go.
I’ve found two clearly related words for magic (well, more than two, but these are particularly related): mahō (魔法) and majutsu (魔術). Now, majutsu seems to translate to ‘sorcery’ rather than ‘magic.’ In English, that’s a matter of etymology. Sorcery derives from the Latin for fate. Magic stems from Ancient Greek (magus, a magician, so magic is what magicians do…). I’d like to know what the difference is in Japanese.
Now, both words seem to be related to demons. If I just take the separate ideograms, mahō is ‘demon law’ while majutsu is ‘demon art.’ Mahō seems to be the more commonly used word for magic, but I have a small sample size. If anyone can clarify this for me, that would be fantastic.
Witches and Ray-Guns 
I am not Japanese, but there is something here:
https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23500
That’s actually not a bad explanation. Thanks.
If you scroll down on https://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-vi/ there’s a little discussion of mahou vs madou.
I’d be cautious about leaning on 魔 as “demon”, despite its popular appearance in isekai novels with that usage. Few kanji should be thought of as a single English word, especially a narrow one. (At a minimum, pick the “evil spirit” usage from dictionary if you’re going to stick to just one.)
For some additional context, 法 appears in words like “grammar”, and 術 is in “art museum” and “fine arts”.
I’m aware that kanji have variant meanings (and pronunciations for that matter; especially when used in names). I picked ‘demon’ because it seemed the most common usage, but Japanese demons aren’t the same as western demons. Expressing magic in some manner associated with ‘demons’ seems like a reasonable concept, tbh.
This difference in term actually interested me from a martial arts standpoint and I wondered whether the difference might be related in some way. ‘Jutsu’ is generally used as an ending for combat arts, while ‘do’ is used for the competition versions. Hence, we get kenjutsu and keno, jujutsu and judo, etc. I wondered whether ‘majutsu’ might be a more practical application, or less theoretical (for given values of both terms; this is magic we’re talking about and, despite my writing, I’m sad to say that I don’t believe in magic). However, the document Kenny pointed me at suggests a different idea, with ‘majutsu’ just being a more generic term encompassing stage magic, slight of hand, and ‘real’ ritual magic.
All this because I was trying to come up with a logo for something. Ah well.
IIRC, “-do” was the more philosophical/artistic approach unrelated to whether or not there was competition. I suspect that both Ueshiba (aikido) and Funakoshi (shotokan karate) would have disagreed with someone characterizing their arts as competition-oriented.
P.S.: If you are ever taking votes for what to work on next, I suggest finishing up the Misfits. The plot threads they are a-hanging.
I’ve been thinking about the Misfits, but it’s not quite ready in my head. Next year, I hope.
It looks like ‘majutsu’ is interpreted differently, so your idea is not really wrong either I think.
https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/05/magic.html
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Japanese-word-for-magic
Personally, I’d see ‘majutsu’ as more of a complex structured magic system while ‘maho’ can be anything.
I agree a bit with Kenny there, it’s all fairly undefined anyway.
I ones read one of the books written by the founder of shotokan karate Funakoshi Gichin (it wan’t named like that back then.)
and even he speculated about what kanji was the right one to use, for the art form.
Yeah, that sounds about right. I really respect Japanese kids for even attempting to learn how to write their own language.