Hey, how'd I let this one go untouched for so long? Of all the misconceptions about the Japanese language, "three writing systems" has got to be the most widespread, even among people who really should know better. Lately the meme has been working overtime on this Slashdot thread – which is so all-round packed with misconceptions about Japanese that my head gets all asplodey just trying to keep track.

I'll stick to addressing just one mistake here. The question to be answered is: How many writing systems does Japanese use?

And the answer is: ONE. 

Yes, whatever you may have heard, Japanese does not use "three writing systems". It uses precisely one. No more, no fewer.

"Huh? There are three: Kanji, then hiragana, then katakana.. That's three writing syst..."

No. ONE. Read more

I watched Steve Jobs unveil the new iPhone 4 today. As part of his demonstration, he invited the audience to look at a non-English language on the phone's high resolution screen:

When you get to character-based languages... Kanji in this case... it's also striking...

Hey, that text does look great on the gadget! But...

Dang it, there is no language called Kanji. This mistaken idea keeps on spreading, so let's make a tiny contribution in trying to squash it:

The word 漢字 kanji is Japanese for "Chinese character". That's the literal breakdown – 漢 kan is one of several Chinese characters meaning "China, Chinese", and 字 ji means "written character" or "written letter". (For the scholars: the 漢 part comes from a historical area of China. If you've heard of the Han Dynasty, that "Han" and 漢 are one and the same.)

And that's all there is to kanji. It's the Japanese word for "Chinese character(s)", whether those appear in written Chinese, or in written Japanese, or in written Korean, or in a hamfisted tattoo on some wretch's leg (with random strokes missing and ninja written upside down).

Sure, kanji are used in written Japanese. So are the homegrown phonetic characters called kana, and so are Arabic numerals, among other bits and pieces. But the presence of those Chinese characters in Japanese no more gives the language itself the name kanji, than the presence of those Arabic numerals gives the language the name arabia suuji. Either of these is simply one component of the written language.

So what is the proper name for the Japanese language? In English, just "Japanese". That's it. Whether the written or spoken language, it's "Japanese", and never anything else. 

Unless you're speaking something other than English, in which case it'll be (for example) Giapponese (Italian), Японский (Russian), Japansk (Norwegian), or even nihongo (Japanese). That latter is a combination of nihon ("Japan") and go ("language") – i.e., pretty much the same construction as the English name "Japanese".

Of course, you could write the word nihongo using hiragana, as にほんご. Or using katakana (should you for some reason want to do so), as ニホンゴ. You can also write nihongo using kanji, as 日本語 – and in Japanese, you normally would write it that way.

Just take note that whatever language you're speaking, the word which names the Japanese language is not kanji. Never was and never will be.

So. Now, when you see someone make that mistake, you know where to send 'em for a straightening-out! (Let's see, what was Steve J's famous email address?)

I made a small addition to What's easy about learning Japanese, noting the nice way in which you can speak about anyone in Japanese without having to know (or even care about) the person's gender. It's a pleasure to avoid English's required concern over Mr vs Ms or he vs she.

Actually, this is not so much something that makes Japanese easy to learn; it's more a simplification that makes the language easy to use. Hmm, perhaps a separate series of articles could be written on that topic? What do you think, reader: Do you have any examples of things that may or may not affect ease of learning, but that affect the ease of using Japanese?

Back in 2005, Japan Times science writer Rowan Hooper noted US-based medical studies which, although inconclusive, suggested that aging-related conditions could be ameliorated through transcendental meditation (TM) techniques such as mindfulness and progressive muscle relaxation. Hooper went on to suggest that Japanese lifespans may be long due to similar effects brought about by two factors: Buddhism and "shikata ga nai mentality".

If you have any contact with "Japanology" musings, you've no doubt heard of shikata ga nai, or its other common form shou ga nai, as yet another entry on a loooong list of "uniquely Japanese" concepts. The phrase, as normally used, is a simple expression of resignation, of giving in or going along when things are beyond one's control – as in, "Oh well, what are you gonna do." Read more

A lot of Japanese words have popped up in English over the years. We could pick out a bundle brought back by soldiers after the war ("A skosh more whiskey, barkeep!"), another handful arriving during later trade troubles ("We're bringing in a kaizen specialist to re-prioritize our manufacturing paradigms!"), and a recent crop imported by pop culture fans ("I just love anime, don't you?"), with surely more to arrive via new routes. Words don't often jump languages with meaning intact, though, and many Japanese loanwords are no exception. Let's look at a few words that have found a new life – and some new meanings – in English. Read more

A very short message to all translation agencies, "anime fans", and self-described Japanese learners out there:

Stop saying "Romanji".

The Japanese word for the Latin alphabet – the character set used in English and many other languages – is romaji (or Romaji if you like). From roma (Rome) and ji (letters/characters). Romaji. Never "Romanji". So stop it already.

(And if you're communicating in English, isn't "the Latin alphabet", or just "the alphabet", the phrase you want anyway?)

We cool?

Should I ever need to hire a translation firm, I know one I won't be considering. A strange pang of kindness holds me back from giving out the befuddled firm's name here, but the FAQ page of these "Japanese translators of the highest quality" contains this goofiness:

[T]here are no such things as words in Japanese. Read more

Language lesson videos from the Kyoto Japanese Language School.

One of the most beloved Japanology memes overseas involves the word kaizen (or Kaizen to some). Here's the definition from the New Oxford American Dictionary:

kaizen |ˈkaɪzən|
noun: a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, etc.

That sometimes gets further embellished by eager writers who extend kaizen to carry continuous improvement out of the business realm, and "throughout all aspects of life", per one definition I've seen. Whatever the specifics, what you'll find in common across all definitions is that kaizen is a Japanese word for "a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement".

Unfortunately, that's wrong. Read more

Surely you've heard this one: the Chinese word for "crisis" (危機, weiji in Chinese, kiki in Japanese) is composed of the two characters for "danger" and "opportunity". This reveals the wise Oriental insight that a crisis is an oportunity for progress, an impressive outlook we'd all do well to emulate. Or so we've been told for decades by management gurus, New Age philosphers, generic pundits, and even world leaders. Read more