Several parts combine into one character.

Phonetic-semantic compound: 土 (earth / ground) + 昜 (a phonetic, related to 陽 yáng "sunny / yang"). The encoded image: "a flat patch of sunny earth" — the open space where farmers thresh grain, where markets gather, where festivals are held. Three forms: 繁體 場 / 新字体 場 / 简体 场 (the simplified drops most of the right side).

場 / 场 anchors location vocabulary across CJK languages — anything that's a spatially defined space tends to use this character: 市場 / 市场 (market), 工場 / 工厂 — wait, simplified Chinese uses 工厂 (gōngchǎng) instead, so this is a comparison point.

Mandarin: chǎng, dipping 3rd tone (simplified 场). 市场 (shìchǎng, market — abstract / commercial market), 机场 (jīchǎng, airport — "machine field"), 广场 (guǎngchǎng, public square / plaza — Tiananmen Square is 天安门广场), 商场 (shāngchǎng, shopping mall), 现场 (xiànchǎng, on the spot / live), 操场 (cāochǎng, sports field). The Mandarin 〜场 has slightly different scope than the Japanese 〜場 — Mandarin uses 厂 for factory while Japanese uses 場.

Japanese: on-reading ジョウ (jō) for compounds — 工場 (kōjō, factory), 会場 (kaijō, meeting venue / event site), 劇場 (gekijō, theater), 球場 (kyūjō, baseball field), 運動場 (undōjō, sports field), 入場 (nyūjō, entrance / admission). Less common チョウ (chō). Kun-reading ば (ba) is one of the most useful Japanese suffixes — it makes any noun into "the place / situation": — 場所 (basho, place / location) — 場合 (baai, "case / situation" — extremely high-frequency word) — 現場 (genba, the actual scene — used for crime scenes, shooting locations, work sites) — 立場 (tachiba, standpoint / position — important in business communication) The 〜場 / 〜ば suffix is core Japanese vocabulary for situations and locations.

Memory aid: sunny earth = an open gathering space.