answersLogoWhite

0

Kanji is a symbolic type alphabet used by the Japanese to write. It is derived from the Chinese written symbols and has many similarities with Chinese.

Each symbol has a meaning or whole word associated with it, as opposed to the English alphabet where we only have individual letters that don't mean anything on their own.

The Japanese have 4 writing systems:

1. Hiragana (for native Japanese words)

2. Katakana (for foreign/imported words and to emphasise a word)

3. Kanji (symbolic alphabet)

4. Romaji (This is essentially the English alphabet that they include in some of their day-to-day life, mostly numbers)

Kanji contains up to 40,000 different symbols, but most Japanese know between 1,000-4,000.

User Avatar

Wiki User

12y ago

What else can I help you with?