Language, Population and People

Language

The Japanese language is largely influenced by Chinese, there are 3 main character scripts. Kanji which based on Chinese characters and comprises of several thousand individual glyphs. Hiragana a kana system used for words where this is no Kanji. Katakana also a kana system used for loanwords (a word taken from another language with no translation).

The basic grammar is not so complicated, there is no need to use gender or to differentiate between plural and singular objects, the structure is: Subject Object Verb. Things start to get more complicated in certain situations as there are varying levels of politeness depending on who you are speaking to, their age and position in work.

Whether you need to learn Japanese or not will entirely depend on the purpose of your stay. There are many Japanese language schools in Japan for foreigners, going to a school is often easier than learning from a book as you can pick up pronunciation and should get added motivation! There are also plenty of opportunities to take part in language Exchange.

Population

Japan is one of the most overly populated countries in the world with over 125 Million people in an area of 377,835 sq km, however in recent years there has been a declining birthrate. Tokyo has a population of over 12 million, just under 10% of Japans total with the largest amount of registered foreign residents at over 300,000.