[vulgarshudder]

Dear god, what is going on here...

Ok before everyone panics about Japanese becoming a dead language, do as MMM says, come to Japan for 3 days. Apart from a few nonsensical flash advertising, English is in no way in daily use for most people.

Japanese has been an adoptive language for a long time. Kanji anyone? Portugese? Pan and Zubon sure as hell aren't japanese words, and they sure as hell aren't english either.

And Japan was hardly a closed country before the end of the Tokugawa period. There was trade going on with the Portugese, Koreans and Chinese in Nagasaki through out the whole time, with the Portugese even coming up to Edo every two years to give gifts to the shogun.

As MMM said, Japan and Japanese are very adoptive, like all languages it is a living entity that evolves. That doesn't mean it's going to die.