The horizontal arrows are about the tubular casting on process--the stitches you pick from the purl bumps.

The vertical arrows are about where to start pattern J, depending on which part of the sweater you are knitting. Leftmost arrow is the start point for the right front and the neckband, center arrow is for the left front, right one is for the back and the sleeves.

It certainly does look lke you include the non twisted column.

Ruth, what about the column (on this section J as well as some other sections) that has row numbers in it? Is that to be knitted as a selvedge stitch?

I don't think that the blank edge is included in the pattern. Why? Because when you add up the stitches for ABCDEFGH (and backward) you come up with 138 stitches.

That doesn't mean you CAN'T include it...but you'd need to add them to the pattern as it's written down.

Whoops, I forgot to write this in my last post. The ribbing chart has a bunch of symbols and arrows underneath it referring to where to start each piece of the garment. From left to right, the first arrow is the indicator for the Right Front and the Collar (after the band stitches), the next arrow, the bent one, inidicated the beginning stitch of the Left Front and the arrow furthest to the right is the stitch to start the back and the sleeve on. Hope this is helpful!

The column with row numbers is just informational.

Japanese charts don't usually include selvedge stitches; you have to plan that yourself. (There are exceptions--the cover sweater chart shows adding selvedge stitches for the shoulder straps, for example.)

I haven't counted stitches for the sweater--am still on the hat--but I'd be surprised if the blank column (untwisted knit stitches) were not intended to be included.