Facts About Japan
- Known for a rich culture dating back thousands of years
- An archipelago composed of over 2,000 islands
- Major islands are Honshu (southern) and Hokkaido (northern)
- Held the world's second largest economy until 2010
- Has a robust economy, specializing in high-tech fields
- Well known for an electronics manufacturing boom in the 1980s-1990s
- Home to hundreds of multinational corporations including Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi and JVC
- Population of nearly 128 million people according to the most recent national census
Facts About the Japanese Language
- Known locally as Nihongo
- Comprised of four alphabets:
- Hiragana: Built of individual syllables, forming native Japanese words.
- Katakana: Built of individual syllables, forming foreign words, e.g. English.
- Kanji: Made primary of Chinese symbols, representing entire words.
- Romaji: A-Z English-similar alphabet used for native Japanese and English words.
- Japanese translation services are often needed to handle combinations of Japanese and English text, as the two are frequently used interchangeably in Japanese business endeavours, particularly advertisement