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It is known from archaeological evidence that the first contacts that the Japanese had with Chinese writing took place in the 1st century AD, during the late [[Yayoi period]]. However, the Japanese people of that era probably had little to no comprehension of the script, and they would remain relatively illiterate until the 5th century AD in the [[Kofun period]], when writing in Japan became more widespread.
Kanji characters are used to write most [[content word]]s of native Japanese or (historically) Chinese origin, which include the following:
*many [[noun]]s, such as {{lang|ja|川}} (''kawa'', "river") and {{lang|ja|学校}} (''gakkō'', "school")
*the stems of most [[verb]]s and [[adjective]]s, such as {{lang|ja|見}} in {{lang|ja|見る}} (''miru'', "see") and {{lang|ja|白}} in {{lang|ja|白い}} (''shiroi'', "white")
*the stems of many [[adverb]]s, such as {{lang|ja|速}} in {{lang|ja|速く}} (''hayaku'', "quickly") and {{lang|ja|上手}} as in {{lang|ja|上手に}} (''jōzu ni'', "masterfully")
*most [[Japanese name|Japanese personal names]] and place names, such as {{lang|ja|田中}} (''Tanaka'') and {{lang|ja|東京}} (''Tōkyō''). (Certain names may be written in hiragana or katakana, or some combination of these, plus kanji.)
Some Japanese words are written with different kanji depending on the specific usage of the word—for instance, the word ''naosu'' (to fix, or to cure) is written {{lang|ja|治す}} when it refers to curing a person, and {{lang|ja|直す}} when it refers to fixing an object.
Most kanji have more than one possible pronunciation (or "reading"), and some common kanji have many. These are broadly divided into ''on'yomi'', which are readings that approximate to a Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was adopted into Japanese, and ''kun'yomi'', which are pronunciations of native Japanese words that correspond to the meaning of the kanji character. However, some kanji terms have pronunciations that correspond to neither the ''on'yomi'' nor the ''kun'yomi'' readings of the individual kanji within the term, such as {{lang|ja|明日}} (''ashita'', "tomorrow") and {{lang|ja|大人}} (''otona'', "adult").
Unusual or nonstandard kanji readings may be glossed using [[furigana]]. Kanji compounds are sometimes given arbitrary readings for stylistic purposes. For example, in [[Natsume Sōseki]]'s short story ''[[Ten Nights of Dreams#Summaries of the Dreams|The Fifth Night]]'', the author uses {{lang|ja|接続って}} for ''tsunagatte'', the [[gerund]]ive [[Japanese grammar#Verbs|''-te'' form]] of the verb ''tsunagaru'' ("to connect"), which would usually be written as {{lang|ja|繋がって}} or {{lang|ja|つながって}}. The word {{lang|ja|接続}}, meaning "connection", is normally pronounced ''setsuzoku''.
===Kana===
==== Hiragana ====
{{Nihongo|''[[Hiragana]]''|平仮名}} emerged as a manual simplification via cursive script of the most phonetically widespread kanji among those who could read and write during the [[Heian period]] (794–1185). The main creators of the current hiragana were ladies of the [[Japanese imperial court]], who used the script in the writing of personal communications and literature.
Hiragana is used to write the following:
*{{Nihongo|''[[okurigana]]''|送り仮名}}—[[inflection]]al endings for [[adjective]]s and [[verb]]s—such as {{lang|ja|る}} in {{lang|ja|見る}} (''miru'', "see") and {{lang|ja|い}} in {{lang|ja|白い}} (''shiroi'', "white"), and respectively {{lang|ja|た}} and {{lang|ja|かった}} in their past tense inflections {{lang|ja|見た}} (''mita'', "saw") and {{lang|ja|白かった}} (''shirokatta'', "was white").
*various function words, including most [[grammatical particles]], or [[postpositions]] ({{Nihongo|''[[Japanese particles|joshi]]''|助詞}})—small, usually common words that, for example, mark sentence topics, subjects and objects or have a purpose similar to English prepositions such as "in", "to", "from", "by" and "for".
*miscellaneous other words of various grammatical types that lack a kanji rendition, or whose kanji is obscure, difficult to typeset, or considered too difficult to understand for the context (such as in children's books).
*{{Nihongo|''[[Furigana]]''|振り仮名}}—phonetic renderings of hiragana placed above or beside the kanji character. Furigana may aid children or non-native speakers or clarify nonstandard, rare, or ambiguous readings, especially for words that use kanji not part of the [[jōyō kanji]] list.
There is also some flexibility for words with common kanji renditions to be instead written in hiragana, depending on the individual author's preference (all Japanese words ''can'' be spelled out entirely in hiragana or katakana, even when they are normally written using kanji). Some words are colloquially written in hiragana and writing them in kanji might give them a more formal tone, while hiragana may impart a softer or more emotional feeling.<ref name="KessMiyamoto1999">{{cite book|author1=Joseph F. Kess|author2=Tadao Miyamoto|title=The Japanese Mental Lexicon: Psycholinguistics Studies of Kana and Kanji Processing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdhFbwDtVUQC&pg=PA107|date=1 January 1999|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=90-272-2189-8|page=107}}</ref> For example, the Japanese word ''kawaii'', the Japanese equivalent of "cute", can be written entirely in hiragana as in {{lang|ja|かわいい}}, or with kanji as {{lang|ja|可愛い}}.
Some lexical items that are normally written using kanji have become [[grammaticalisation|grammaticalized]] in certain contexts, where they are instead written in hiragana. For example, the root of the verb {{lang|ja|見る}} (''miru'', "see") is normally written with the kanji {{lang|ja|見}} for the ''mi'' portion. However, when used as a supplementary verb as in <span lang="Ja" dir="ltr">試してみる</span> (''tameshite miru'') meaning "to try out", the whole verb is typically written in hiragana as {{lang|ja|みる}}, as we see also in {{lang|ja|食べてみる}} (''tabete miru'', "try to eat [it] and see").
==== Katakana ====
{{Nihongo|''[[Katakana]]''|片仮名}} emerged around the 9th century, in the [[Heian period]], when Buddhist monks created a syllabary derived from Chinese characters to simplify their reading, using portions of the characters as a kind of shorthand. The origin of the alphabet is attributed to the monk [[Kūkai]].
Katakana is used to write the following:
*transliteration of foreign words and names, such as {{lang|ja|コンピュータ}} (''konpyūta'', "computer") and {{lang|ja|ロンドン}} (''Rondon'', "London"). However, some foreign borrowings that were naturalized may be rendered in hiragana, such as たばこ (''tabako'', "tobacco"), which comes from Portuguese. See also [[Transcription into Japanese]].
*commonly used names of animals and plants, such as {{lang|ja|トカゲ}} (''tokage'', "lizard"), {{lang|ja|ネコ}} (''neko'', "cat") and {{lang|ja|バラ}} (''bara'', "rose"), and certain other technical and scientific terms, such as mineral names
*occasionally, the names of miscellaneous other objects whose kanji are rare, such as {{lang|ja|ローソク}} (''rōsoku'', "candle"); the kanji form, {{lang|ja|蝋燭}}, contains the [[hyōgaiji]] {{lang|ja|蝋}}.
*[[onomatopoeia]], such as {{lang|ja|ワンワン}} (''wan-wan'', "woof-woof"), and other [[Japanese sound symbolism|sound symbolism]]
*emphasis, much like [[Italic type|italicisation]] in European languages.
Katakana can also be used to impart the idea that words are spoken in a foreign or otherwise unusual accent; for example, the speech of a robot.
===Rōmaji===
The first contact of the Japanese with the Latin alphabet occurred in the 16th century, during the [[Muromachi period]], when they had contact with Portuguese navigators, the first European people to visit the Japanese islands. The earliest Japanese romanization system was based on [[Portuguese orthography]]. It was developed around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named [[Anjirō]].
The [[Latin alphabet]] is used to write the following:
*Latin-alphabet [[acronym]]s and [[initialism]]s, such as [[NATO]] or [[UFO]]
*Japanese personal names, corporate brands, and other words intended for international use (for example, on business cards, in passports, etc.)
*foreign names, words, and phrases, often in scholarly contexts
*foreign words deliberately rendered to impart a foreign flavour, for instance, in commercial contexts
*other Japanized words derived or originated from foreign languages, such as {{lang|ja|Jリーグ}} (''jei rīgu'', "[[J. League]]"), {{lang|ja|Tシャツ}} (''tī shatsu'', "[[T-shirt]]") or {{lang|ja|[[:ja:B級グルメ|B級グルメ]]}} (''bī-kyū gurume'', "B-rank gourmet [cheap and local cuisines]")
===Arabic numerals===
[[Arabic numeral]]s (as opposed to traditional kanji numerals) are often used to write numbers in [[Yokogaki and tategaki|horizontal text]], especially when numbering things rather than indicating a quantity, such as telephone numbers, serial numbers and addresses. Arabic numerals were introduced in Japan probably at the same time as the Latin alphabet, in the 16th century during the [[Muromachi period]], the first contact being via Portuguese navigators. These numerals did not originate in Europe, as the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] inherited them during the [[Al-Andalus|Arab occupation of the Iberian peninsula]]. See also [[Japanese numerals]].
===Hentaigana===
{{nihongo|''[[Hentaigana]]''|変体仮名}}, a set of archaic kana made obsolete by the [[Meiji reformation]], are sometimes used to impart an archaic flavor, like in items of food (esp. [[soba]]).
===Additional mechanisms===
''[[Jukujikun]]'' refers to instances in which words are written using ''kanji'' that reflect the meaning of the word though the pronunciation of the word is entirely unrelated to the usual pronunciations of the constituent ''kanji''. Conversely, ''[[ateji]]'' refers to the employment of ''kanji'' that appear solely to represent the sound of the compound word but are, conceptually, utterly unrelated to the signification of the word.
===Examples===
Sentences are commonly written using a combination of all three Japanese scripts: kanji (<span style="color:red">in red</span>), hiragana (<span style="color:purple">in purple</span>), and katakana (<span style="color:#FF7900">in orange</span>), and in limited instances also include
Latin alphabet characters (<span style="color:green">in green</span>) and Arabic numerals (in black):
{{block indent|{{lang|ja|2=<span style="color:green">T</span><span style="color:#FF7900">シャツ</span><span style="color:purple">を</span><span style="color:black">3</span><span style="color:red">枚購入</span><span style="color:purple">しました</span>。}}}}
The same text can be transliterated to the Latin alphabet (''rōmaji''), although this will generally only be done for the convenience of foreign language speakers:
{{block indent|1=<span style="color:green">''Tī''</span><span style="color:#FF7900">shatsu</span> <span style="color:purple">o</span> <span style="color:black">san</span>-<span style="color:red">mai kōnyū</span> <span style="color:purple">shimashita</span>.}}
Translated into English, this reads:
{{block indent|I bought 3 T-shirts.}}
All words in modern Japanese can be written using hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji, while only some have kanji. Words that have no dedicated kanji may still be written with kanji by employing either [[ateji]] (as in man'yogana, から = 可良) or jukujikun, as in the title of とある科学の超電磁砲 (超電磁砲 being used to represent レールガン).
{| class="wikitable"
!Kanji
!Hiragana
!Katakana
!Rōmaji
!English translation
|-
|{{lang|ja|私}}
|{{lang|ja-Hira|わたし}}
|{{lang|ja-Kana|ワタシ}}
|''watashi''
|I, me
|-
|{{lang|ja|金魚}}
|{{lang|ja-Hira|きんぎょ}}
|{{lang|ja-Kana|キンギョ}}
|''kingyo''
|goldfish
|-
|{{lang|ja|煙草}} or {{lang|ja-Hani|莨}}
|{{lang|ja-Hira|たばこ}}
|{{lang|ja-Kana|タバコ}}
|''tabako''
|tobacco, cigarette
|-
|{{lang|ja|東京}}
|{{lang|ja-Hira|とうきょう}}
|{{lang|ja-Kana|トーキョー}}
|''tōkyō''
|[[Tokyo]], literally meaning "eastern capital"
|-
|''none''
|{{lang|ja-Hira|です}}
|{{lang|ja-Kana|デス}}
|''desu''
|is, am, to be (hiragana, of Japanese origin); death (katakana, of English origin)
|}
Although rare, there are some words that use all three scripts in the same word. An example of this is the term <span style="white-space:nowrap" lang="ja">くノ一</span> ([[Romanized Japanese|''rōmaji'']]: ''[[kunoichi]]''), which uses a hiragana, a katakana, and a kanji character, in that order. It is said that if all three characters are put in the same kanji "square", they all combine to create the kanji {{lang|ja|女}} (woman/female). Another example is {{lang|ja|消しゴム}} (rōmaji: ''keshigomu'') which means "eraser", and uses a kanji, a hiragana, and two katakana characters, in that order.
===Statistics===
A statistical analysis of a corpus of the Japanese newspaper ''[[Asahi Shimbun]]'' from the year 1993 (around 56.6 million tokens) revealed:<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Chikamatsu|first1=Nobuko|last2=Yokoyama|first2=Shoichi|last3=Nozaki|first3=Hironari|last4=Long|first4=Eric|last5=Fukuda|first5=Sachio|title=A Japanese logographic character frequency list for cognitive science research|journal=Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers|date=2000|volume=32|issue=3|pages=482–500|doi=10.3758/BF03200819|pmid=11029823|s2cid=21633023|doi-access=free}}</ref>
{|
|- valign="top"
|
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Character frequency
! Characters !! Types !! Proportion of corpus (%)
|-
|Kanji||4,476||41.38
|-
|Hiragana||83||36.62
|-
|Katakana||86||6.38
|-
|Punctuation and symbols||99||13.09
|-
|Arabic numerals||10||2.07
|-
|Latin letters||52||0.46
|}
|
|
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Kanji frequency
! Frequency <br/>rank !! Cumulative <br/>frequency (%)
|-
|10||10.00
|-
|50||27.41
|-
|100||40.71
|-
|200||57.02
|-
|500||80.68
|-
|1,000||94.56
|-
|1,500||98.63
|-
|2,000||99.72
|-
|2,500||99.92
|-
|3,000||99.97
|}
|}
== Collation ==
|