# Is the Japanese language written using Chinese characters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491 "2006-09-13T02:31:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duggy\_Fizzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Duggy\_Fizzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duggy_Fizzle)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/1 "2006-09-13T02:31:41Z")
[this news article](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_en_ce/japan_imperial_succession) states that Japan’s new prince’s name, Hisahito, was written with Chinese characters. > [@](#): > > Hisahito, formed with the **Chinese characters** for “virtuous, calm and everlasting,” was chosen with the wish that the new prince has a long, prosperous life, an even temper and peace of mind, according to palace spokeswoman Yuka Shiina. and > [@](#): > > Keeping with custom, Hisahito’s name ends with the **Chinese character**"hito," which means virtuous person, an appellation given to male royals. The current emperor is his grandfather, Akihito, whose father was Emperor Hirohito. The baby’s father, commonly known as Akishino, also was given the name Fumihito. bolding mine. When I read the first reference to Chinese characters I thought it was a mistake, but it must not be if the author wrote it again. Is it written this way for only for a special ceremony or is the writing the same for both languages? ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/2 "2006-09-13T02:57:35Z")
Japanese uses both Chinese characters (called kanji in Japanese) and native characters (hiragana and katakana) which were actually derived from kanji anyway. Kanji, which are generally whole words, were borrowed from the Chinese and most have both Chinese and Japanese pronunciations. Hiragana and katakana are more like an alphabet with each character representing a syllable. Generally, hiragana is used to form connection words, word endings, and sometimes whoel words where katakana is used for foreign words. So, short answer, it’s not a formal deal, the Japanese use Chinese characters daily. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/3 "2006-09-13T03:06:44Z")
For the most part, Japanese is written using Chinese characters, because writing was introduced into Japan from China/Korea. Over the centuries the meaning/appearance of some characters have diverged, so a particular character used by the Japanese may not be used the same way by other sinographic cultures. Additionally, there are Japanese created “Chinese” characters, some of which have been exported back to China. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/4 "2006-09-13T03:13:52Z")
[The Japanese Writing System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system) -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/5 "2006-09-13T04:03:53Z")
Like **cckerberos** said, the writing systems have diverged somewhat. If you learned Japanese and then picked up a Chinese newspaper, at best you’d probably only get a very superficial impression of what was written. In addition to 13-odd centuries of drifting apart on their own, during the 1950’s and 60’s both countries carried out sweeping reforms to simplify the writing systems, but they followed their own methods (and, given the political climate and recent history, I doubt either was inclined to look to the other as a guide), so the systems ended up diverging even further. Also, while some individual characters have the same meaning between the two languages, pairs and sets of characters (which most words are) rarely mean exactly the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/6 "2006-09-13T04:38:30Z")
IIRC, there are also kanji characters which were invented in Japan (I’m not referring to the simplification scheme) and are not used in China. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-japanese-language-written-using-chinese-characters/372491/7 "2006-09-13T06:19:32Z")
From what I’ve read over the years, and IIRC: As is outline in the article cited, written Chinese was brought into Jpan back in the 4th century. However, because of fundemental differences in the two langues, it was impossible to use only kanji to write Japanse. As I’m discovering from conversations with my Taiwanese wife, Chinese do not have verb inflections for past tense or negatives (I’m skating on this ice here, if someone who actually knows Chinese is around, please help clean up this description). Since Japanese rely on inflections, then it was necessary to add Japanese endings. This was one of the driving forces in the development of what became hiragana and katakana. Japanese themselves don’t see kanji as “Chinese” any more than most native English speakers don’t see the Latin alphabet as a foreign invention. Also, you can irk some Chinese by calling their characters (even jokingly) “Chinese kanji.” The news reports in Japanese on the new prince’s name just say that his name is writen with two characters, and don’t say “in kanji” since that’s obvous. My wife and I are finding that she can understand the medical conditions of our baby if the characters are written out. Since I know many kanji I’ve been able to understand as well. There are a few kanji created in Japan.