Japanese Writing: Kanji (Chinese Characters) Plus Hiragana & Katakana

Yes, Japanese uses kanji — Chinese characters adopted in the 5th century CE via Buddhist texts. Over 2,000 kanji are in common use (Jōyō kanji). They write nouns, verb/adjective stems.

Kanji combine with two phonetic scripts:

• Hiragana: Native Japanese words, grammatical particles, inflections.
• Katakana: Foreign loanwords, onomatopoeia, emphasis.

This mixed script adds depth but increases learning difficulty.