Should Japan abolish kanji?

[Eigaku]

This question has actually been an issue over the course of Japanese history and there have been several advocates for reform since the Edo period.

You can have a good read about it here:
Japanese script reform - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the start of 1946 there were future plans to completely abolish kanji, but with the advent of computers and IME it has helped preserve kanji.

Even so, there are some organizations in Japan that promote the use of rōmaji, romanization of the Japanese alphabet or the use of a kana-only script:

Nippon-no-Rômazi-Sya (An organization promoting the use of rōmaji) (Japanese)
The Society for the Romanization of the Japanese Alphabet (Japanese)
Kanamojikai (An organization promoting the use of a kana-only script) (Japanese)

[sakaeyellow]

I am Chinese and was born and raised in an all Kanji environment. Here is my 2 cents:

1. Original Japanese phrases do not have many homonyms. But Kanji phrases are the total opposite. I'll raise the white flag if you ask me to name ten Kanji phrases that are unique and do not have any homonym. The reasons? It's because the pronunciation system of Chinese, be it Mandarin or Cantonese, is much more complicated than that of Japanese. Chinese has tones and use tones to differentiate words with the same consonants and vowels. Japanese does not have tones and only relies on stress. And Chinese simply has more vowels, much more than 5. So to pronounce Chinese words the Japanese way, the only result is that a lot of words which have different pronunciations in Chinese are pronounced the same way in Japanese. Look at English "hall" "hole" and "ball" "bowl", which are translated as ホール and ボール respectively in Japanese, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Is it possible to erase all Kanji phrases from the Japanese language?

Copied from Wikipedia:

According to the Shinsen Kokugo Jiten (新選国語辞典) Japanese dictionary, kango 漢語 comprise 49.1% of the total vocabulary, wago 和語make up 33.8%, other foreign words or gairaigo (外来語 account for 8.8%, and the remaining 8.3% constitute hybridized words or konshugo (混種語 that draw elements from more than one language.

Can the Japanese erase 49.1% of their vocabulary? I seriously doubt it.

2. The conjugations of some verbs will change the verbs into other verbs if written in Hiragana only. Examples are 書ける vs 掛ける, 買える vs 帰る. But adding symbols to indicate the conjugations would solve this problem.

3. How to differentiate 犬を飼う and 犬を買う? How about カう(katahira mix) and かう (pure hira)?

4. Some Kanji are in fact much easier to write than their Hiragana counterparts. Examples: 人ひと, 一いち and 山やま.

5. Suddenly the Japanese will have a lot of namesakes.

If the Japanese really decide to remove Kanji from their language, my suggestions are:

1. add space between words like English and Korean.
2. add special symbols to particles to help reading faster. Or simply write all particles in Romaji. わたし wa にほんご wo べんきょうしています is much easer to read, isn't it?
3. make good use of Katakana to avoid homonyms. Do not reserve them just for loanwords.

[kirakira]

I think you totally missed the boat.

Originally Posted by sakaeyellow

Can the Japanese erase 49.1% of their vocabulary? I seriously doubt it.

Getting rid of characters doesn't mean getting rid of words, the Koreans did it and their language have even a LARGER share of Chinese derived words.

2. The conjugations of some verbs will change the verbs into other verbs if written in Hiragana only. Examples are 書ける vs 掛ける, 買える vs 帰る. But adding symbols to indicate the conjugations would solve this problem.

3. How to differentiate 犬を飼う and 犬を買う? How about カう(katahira mix) and かう (pure hira)?

Not valid since these characters are *retrofited* AFTER characters were introduced. They functioned fine before Chinese characters through context.

4. Some Kanji are in fact much easier to write than their Hiragana counterparts. Examples: 人ひと, 一いち and 山やま.

How many characters are below 3 strokes? That's right, not a lot.

If the Japanese really decide to remove Kanji from their language, my suggestions are:

They will have to go through the Korean route, i.e., each Kanji reading MUST be represented by ONE symbol, not 1-3 like がく、しゃく、てつ etc. otherwise, in its present form, kana introduces all sorts of headaches when strung into a sentence, ergo they MUST kill Kana and introduce a new alphabet.

However, 2 things prevent Japan from doing that like Koreans:
- Hangul was introduced way before the 1950s when Korea ditched characters so the Koreans didn't exactly invent a whole new alphabet to kill characters
- Japanese just does not have enough sounds to get over the homonym situation. 50 sounds no where near enough when modern Chinese had almost 500 and 4 tones in its toolbox or Korean which is up in the hundreds.

In short, it's not going to happen, the economic cost of change is almost impossible to justify whatever perceived gains (easier for western people to learn the language? err why would anybody in Japan care?)

[TalnSG]

When I first saw the topic my reations "Oh yeah, like the French trying to prohibit Franglaise. That worked so well."

But in some ways, this could actually make sense as long as you are not removing the word or changing the pronunciation, just coverting how it is transcribed.

While I have endeavored to learn hiragana and hangul, beyond being an art form I have never had any desire to learn Chinese calligraphy. To me it would be along the lines of learning Neanderthal pictrographs or Egytian hieroglyphics. Not that they are substandard, just that they are impractical written languages. The only practical, perhaps eternal, use I see for Kanji is as the equivalent to a logo.

But then it is not my language or my heritage that is challenged.

[kirakira]

Originally Posted by TalnSG

While I have endeavored to learn hiragana and hangul, beyond being an art form I have never had any desire to learn Chinese calligraphy. To me it would be along the lines of learning Neanderthal pictrographs or Egytian hieroglyphics. Not that they are substandard, just that they are impractical written languages. The only practical, perhaps eternal, use I see for Kanji is as the equivalent to a logo.

Hmmm to sum it up, it's too hard for you . I thought alphabet is pretty substandard cuz you can't tell what the hell each word mean because they only denote pronounciation and tells you NOTHING about meaning. Not to mention they take up more space to convey the same amount of information. Seriously weak dude.

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by Eigaku

Even so, there are some organizations in Japan that promote the use of rōmaji, romanization of the Japanese alphabet or the use of a kana-only script:

Nippon-no-Rômazi-Sya (An organization promoting the use of rōmaji) (Japanese)
The Society for the Romanization of the Japanese Alphabet (Japanese)
Kanamojikai (An organization promoting the use of a kana-only script) (Japanese)

lol You made my day! All those websites are in kanji and kana, in other words, in the "proper" written form.

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by hennaz

Hi all! You know, I've been thinking... should Japan still be using kanji (Chinese characters), limit their usage, or get rid of them altogether?

Stop day-dreaming and just humbly admit that you are stuck in your Japanese studies!

[TalnSG]

Originally Posted by kirakira

Hmmm to sum it up, it's too hard for you . I thought alphabet is pretty substandard cuz you can't tell what the hell each word mean because they only denote pronounciation and tells you NOTHING about meaning. Not to mention they take up more space to convey the same amount of information. Seriously weak dude.

Hard, no. Just very cumbersome.

I have far to many things filling my time to justify the effort mastering it would require since it is something I would almost never use. The few kanji that I occassionally use, I learned back when keyboards were only on typewriters.

One might consider your views a bit limited or archaic.

[Seele]

Kanji take a lot of time to learn, but they're so beautiful! *___* For me it's so interesting to find out why some kanji look like this, try to understand ancient japanese psychology. And when I see calligraphy...omg! it's unbelievably stunning!

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by Seele

Kanji take a lot of time to learn, but they're so beautiful! *___* For me it's so interesting to find out why some kanji look like this, try to understand ancient japanese psychology. And when I see calligraphy...omg! it's unbelievably stunning!

Finally someone I can relate too! Do you study calligraphy?

Here is link to my recent works, perhaps you find something you like ^^

YouTube - my recent calligraphy, hanshi size