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Not entirely. Katakana and Hiragana are phonetic ways of writing Japanese. Say, for example, you wanted to write a foreign word in Japanese, such as the female name "Caitlin." You would have to write it in Katakana, as ケイトリン(ke-i-to-ri-n).

Hiragana, although it can be used in a similar way, is mostly used to help people with the pronunciation of a word. Just like in, say, a school textbook. If there is a word, such as "Tenochtitlan," you have the phonetic pronunciation, (te-noch-tee-tlaan.)

Kanji, on the other hand, is somewhat pictorial. You have to know and memorize what it is, in order to read it. There are 2,136 official Kanji characters used in Japan. That is why Hiragana, and maybe level one or two Kanji, is used in some books.

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