Why do Japanese use Kanji?

[Muz1234]

Kanji is the most difficult thing I learnt in Japanese, takes hours of practice, and find the right Kanji when spotted somewhere. Why the Japanese people adopted the Kanji system?

 

[Petaris]

Hello, There have been many, many forum posts about this. I suggest searching a bit and you will find a lot of information and discussion about this topic.

 

[Toritoribe]

It's indeed an FAQ.

Should Japan Abolish Kanji?

This issue was raised up I think sometime before in Japan but it never got passed. Do you think they should keep kanji? Kanji is makes it more difficult to learn Japanese, and hiragana and katagana could be used to write any word. Since Kanji is basically a copy of Chinese and hiragana and...

jref.com

Does Japanese Really Need Kanji?

I have been considering this for awhile as it's one of the things that has really De-motivated me to learn Japanese. So my question is: does the Japanese language really need kanji? Isn't it good enough to just stick with the kana and Institute spaces or something? I do understand the cultural...

jref.com

Why didn't the Japanese adopt a fully phonetic alphabet system?

Like the Koreans or Vietnamese for example, who also used Chinese characters in the past. They already had Hiragana and Katakana, so all they had to do was use Hiragana for all words not just for grammar. If I am not mistaken from reading about Japanese history there was a Japanese guy who...

jref.com

 

[Earle]

In Japanese writing, the number of Kanji characters used is a measure of the sophistication and intelligence of the writer. Yes, it's tough on the student, but that is part of the Kanji advantage!