The Origin of Writing in Japan
From the 4th century onwards the Japanese began to import and adapt the Chinese script. The first writings took the form of either Classical Chinese or in a Japanese-Chinese hybrid style, but the writing system evolved to manipulate Chinese characters in a specifically Japanese style, known as man'yōgana, literally "Ten Thousand leaf syllabic script"; this used the characters for their phonetic values. Chinese characters continued to be used to write either words borrowed from Chinese, or Japanese words with the same or similar meanings. Chinese characters were also used for their phonetic values to write grammatical elements and these characters were simplified and eventually became two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana.

Modern Japanese
is written with a mixture of hiragana and katakana, plus kanji. Modern Japanese texts may also include rōmaji, (Roman letters), the standard way of writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet, eimoji (English script), non-Japanese words written in their own script and various symbols known as kigō.

Grammar
Japanese grammar is on the whole relatively simple. Compared to other languages, there are very few complicated features – nouns, for example, stay the same however they are used.

Pronunciation
In comparison with other languages, there is a restricted number of sounds which means pronunciation does not pose many problems for most learners of Japanese. There are however many homonyms – words that are pronounced in the same way but have different meanings. Accents also exist and could pose a problem to learners not used to tone-based languages.

Patterns of Use
The words and expressions used in Japanese vary, depending on the relationship between speakers, such as when one is addressing an unknown person or a superior, a child, relative or a close friend. For example, there are over five different words for the first person singular pronoun "I". For formal situations, an honorific language level (keigo) is still in common use.

Layout Structure
Layout varies depending on the nature of the document. For horizontal writing, it reads from left to right, and for vertical writing, it reads from top to the bottom, right to left.

Purchase Guide

• The most difficult aspect of buying Japanese translation is clarifying the audience, purpose and meaning of the text. Clients should therefore try to provide as much information as possible about the target audience: this is crucial to ensure that the translation can maintain the original meaning and purpose of the original text.
  

• In Japanese, answers to passive interrogative forms (don't you...? or Isn't it...?) will take a negative form though their meaning is positive. This is because answers to Japanese sentences have a tendency to either admit or deny.