kanji

Japanese writing based on Chinese characters

There are four ways to write Japanese, and all four may be used in one sitting. Kanji, or Chinese characters, are used for the main root of the word. Hiragana, syllabic Japanese writing, is used for the prefixes and suffixes of Japanese words. Katakana is also a syllabic system of writing, but it is used for depicting foreign words. There is also Romajii, writing Japanese words using the Roman alphabet.