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March 17, 2004

Japan and China: National Character Writ Large

Letter From Asia: Japan and China: National Character Writ Large (free reg. req.)

Some interesting facts:

  1. Japanese have a separate character-set (Katakana) to write foreign names (also includes names of Japanese people who moved out of Japan), so one can immediately tell from the name if he/she/it is "Japanese" or not.
  2. Chinese is exact opposite. Everything is written in Chinese.
  3. Japanese have 2,230 kanji characters which can be used for names... it's illegal to pick a name outside these character sets.

Posted by minwoo at March 17, 2004 03:42 AM

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