Modern Japanese is based on an ancient tongue called yamato-kotoba. It is said that there was no writing system in Japan until the end of the 4th century, when kanji characters were introduced from China. However, it has also been pointed out that since the Kamakura period (12th-13th centuries), ancient scripts, such as the Jindai-moji, existed. The Kojiki, the oldest book in Japan (written in the year 712), contains myths about the origins of Japan, and is written entirely in Chinese characters. This book was mainly written in Chinese characters that match sounds from the Japanese language, ignoring the original meaning of the characters. In other words, kanji was used like hiragana and katakana characters. The same applies to Japan’s earliest collection of poetry, Manyoushuu, and these characters are called manyou-gana. Later, in order to avoid the need to write complex characters, characters using parts of kanji were created. This script is known as katakana. Hiragana was made using parts of the cursive style of kanji. The system for writing these scripts in the Roman alphabet is called Romaji. In addition, the convenience of being able to express the meaning of a word with a single kanji character was introduced into yamatokotoba. For example, “ 川,” which stands for “river” and is read differently in Chinese, came to stand for “kawa,” which has the same meaning in yamato-kotoba. In this way, it was possible to differentiate it from the “kawa” for animal skin by writing it as “ 皮.” “Toru / とる” generally means to grab something with one’s hands, but if you write it in kanji, “ 取る” would be used to “take off a lid,” “ 捕る” to “catch an insect,” “ 撮る” to “take a picture,” and “ 採る” to “ employ someone,” which enables us to clarify its meaning. “Toru / とる” is the dictionary form of the word, but when it is used in sentences, the ending is mostly changed, as in “tori (masu)” or “totte (kudasai).” Chinese characters can only be applied to the “to” part. Hiragana characters that follow on from Chinese characters, such as “-ru” “-ri” “-tte” are called okurigana. In the past, Japan adopted Chinese characters from China, but today, words from many foreign languages, including English, have been incorporated into Japanese and are used with Japanese-style pronunciation. The alphabet was not widely used when a system for introducing these words was devised in Japan, which is why katakana was used to denote English sounds. This is the reason why English pronunciations have become adapted to the Japanese style. The Japanese language has been developed by adopting elements from foreign languages and improving them in a Japanese way. As a result, Japanese has become a language that uses several different kinds of characters. Because of its diverse nature, it has become the world’s most expressive language.