<P> The modern Japanese writing system is a combination of two character types : logographic kanji , which are adopted Chinese characters , and syllabic kana . Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries : hiragana , used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese words and grammatical elements , and katakana , used primarily for foreign words and names , loanwords , onomatopoeia , scientific names , and sometimes for emphasis . Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana . Because of this mixture of scripts , in addition to a large inventory of kanji characters , the Japanese writing system is often considered to be the most complicated in use anywhere in the world . </P>
<P> The modern Japanese writing system is a combination of two character types : logographic kanji , which are adopted Chinese characters , and syllabic kana . Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries : hiragana , used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese words and grammatical elements , and katakana , used primarily for foreign words and names , loanwords , onomatopoeia , scientific names , and sometimes for emphasis . Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana . Because of this mixture of scripts , in addition to a large inventory of kanji characters , the Japanese writing system is often considered to be the most complicated in use anywhere in the world . </P>
where did japan get its first writing system from
where did japan get its first writing system from
adopted Chinese characters
adopted Chinese characters