The History of Kanji The Japanese language is made up of four main scripts, kanji, hiragana, katakana and romaji. Kanji has been imported over the centuries from China. Pictographs are typically much more complex than kana, hiragana and katakana and, furthermore, have different readings and meanings depending on how they are combined with other kanji. They represent words or ideas rather than syllables, although kan can be used to specify pronunciation. . It is not uncommon to see a kanji with its reading written in very small kana, written right above it. The kana used in this way, to indicate how to pronounce the akanji, are known as 'furigana'. The same kanji can be read in different ways. For example, the kanji "sei" can be read as "sei" when it is in "sensei", teacher, or as "u" when it is in "umareta", I was born, or "nama" in "nama biiru", draft beer. Kanji can be words alone or, when combined with other kanji, compounds. They can be changed and manipulated to provide many different readings and meanings, but retain the original root. They have evolved, over a long period of time, from simple cracks in the tortoise shell to the complex symbols they are today. To investigate this it is useful to explore the history of kanji and its origins, its formation and its different readings. Kanji are characters that were part of the writing system used in Asian countries, particularly China. It is not certain when and where kanji first appeared, however, the oldest drawing-shaped characters, resembling some kind of symbols, were carved on terracotta fragments and were excavated in the ruins of ancient Ch ...... middle of paper... ...an impact that is expected to continue. Another current significant influence is the generation gap that exists regarding the use of the Japanese language, today's younger generations tend to favor the use of a more neutral and informal language, ignoring the importance of the role of honorific speech and gender specific considered important in traditional Japanese. Other developments, such as the progression of new slang terms and the use of youth-specific grammar. This is inevitable and unstoppable, but who's to say this is a problem? It doesn't have to become negative or something to frown upon as it is happening in all languages ​​and cultures of the world. Kanji is a complex and intricate script, adapted from Chinese origin, which responds to the demand of the Japanese to communicate.