The Japanese Language

The official language in Japan is called Kokugo (national language), however, there are a variety of dialects according to region.

In spite of its unique quality, Japanese is not particularly a difficult language to learn because of its pronunciation, which unlike other Asian languages is not tonal. Its complexity lies in its writing system or kanji.

Japan boasts an adult literacy level of 99%, and Japanese is the 9th most widely spoken language in the world.

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The Japanese Writing System

The Japanese writing system can be traced back to the 4th century AD, when the written Chinese language was introduced to Japan. No definitive evidence of any native Japanese writing system that predates this is known to exist.

Initially, this was not used for writing Japanese: to be a literate Japanese meant the ability to read and write Classical Chinese.

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