The Japanese Language

Japan is an island country with a population of over 120 million and has the second largest economy in the world. The Japanese language is the key to discovering the charms and opportunities of this cultural and economic powerhouse that has given the world everything from sushi to karaoke. Here are some facts to consider:

Japanese is the ninth most common language in the world.
The average per capita income in Japan is $34,200. The typical Japanese household has over $100,000 in savings.
Japanese speakers comprise the third-largest language group on the Internet. Almost 10 percent of all Internet users are estimated to be Japanese.
Nearly 4 million Japanese tourists visited the United States in 2004 and spent $12.4 billion.

With its complex alphabets and ambiguous structures, Japanese poses distinct challenges to any translation job. Which of the five different words that can be translated as “I” is correct in any given context? When is it appropriate to use honorific or humble speech? Do you need to convert names into Japanese characters? Here are some pointers to help guide you when first considering a Japanese translation project:

Japanese Alphabets

Japanese has not one, but three different alphabets from which to choose for writing. The oldest of these is Kanji. Kanji developed out of Chinese characters first used in Japan about 1,500 years ago. Kanji characters, which have been simplified over time, are used to represent abstract concepts, names and everyday words. Most Kanji have several meanings and pronunciations. The Japanese government has put together a list of about 2,000 characters that must be learned in school.

The other two Japanese alphabets are named Katakana and Hiragana. Together they are known as Kana. The Japanese invented these in the seventh and eighth centuries CE. They each have 46 letters and are syllabic, meaning each letter represents a different sound. In fact, every letter in each alphabet has an exact counterpart in the other. However, Hiragana is used to represent native Japanese words, while Katakana is used only with imported loan words. Hiragana is also used in combination with Kanji to provide clarification or define seldom-seen characters. It is not uncommon to see Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana all utilized together in the same sentence.

In modern times, writing Japanese in the Latin alphabet has become more common. This process is known as Romanization. Romanized Japanese is used primarily for electronic devices that don’t support Japanese letters and for the convenience of foreigners. Therefore, almost all Japanese are able to read and write using Rōmaji (Roman letters). Three main systems exist for converting Japanese into Rōmaji: Hepburn (the most common system), Nihon-shiki, and Kunrei-shiki.

Japanese Language Characteristics

Besides its unique set of written forms, what makes the Japanese language unique?

Japanese is traditionally written in vertical lines, from right to left. Writing in horizontal lines has become more common because it is easier to include Arabic numerals and passages from other foreign languages.
Japanese uses a subject-object-verb structure for sentences. For example, “She gives a gift” would be expressed “She a gift gives.”
Nouns are distinguished as subjects or objects by using attached particles.
Japanese has no equivalent to the English articles “a,” “an,” or “the.” The meaning is taken from context.
There are no plural forms.
There are no possessive forms of nouns or pronouns. Whose item is being discussed must be deduced from context.
Japanese can express nouns either as subjects or topics using the particles ga and wa. While "Yuki ga siroi" and "Yuki wa siroi" both mean “The snow is white” in English, the former refers to a particular patch of snow (the subject) while the latter refers to snow in general (the topic).
About half of all Japanese vocabulary stems from Chinese roots. A similar proportion of English words have Latin roots. These words tend to express more abstract concepts and are used primarily in academic writing.
Japanese has a fully developed system of honorific language to show varying levels of respect. Its use is mandatory in many social situations.
Women are more likely to use polite forms of address in spoken Japanese than men.
It is possible to make a sentence from a single verb as long as the subject and object are clear from context.
Japanese has an agglutinative verb system. An idea that is expressed in separate verbs (e.g. “was encouraged to continue”) in English is condensed to a single, complex word in Japanese.

Japanese Text and English Operating Systems

Working with Japanese text is likely to create a technical difficulty without the appropriate software. Computers running with English language versions of the Windows operating system can’t normally work with Japanese text because they don’t recognize the codes for Japanese characters. Short of installing Japanese Windows, there are two solutions:

Install Microsoft Japanese Language support - Microsoft provides free software that will adapt Windows to work with Japanese text. It is distributed as part of the Office suite of programs or can be downloaded from Microsoft's website.
Use Graphics Files - Japanese characters can be converted into graphics files suitable for documents and websites. Although the text isn’t as easy to edit, using graphics files allows computers to display it without specialized software.