About Japanese Writing

Kanji script

The Japanese adopted these Chinese-style characters around the fifth century A.D. Each kanji symbol conveys a particular meaning and, depending upon the context, can have various pronunciations. While the characters at first appear similar to Chinese, many have evolved in sound and style, and the meaning can actually be quite different in Japanese.

Foreign names can be translated into Kanji script for the purposes of design, but Katakana script is the more accepted way in Japan. Also, with a Kanji name translation there may be multiple readings of the characters, making the correct pronunciation not immediately clear.

Hiragana script

A flowing, cursive style originally used by women where each character represents a phonetic syllable. For example, Karate would be written with three characters: KA-RA-TE. On their own Hiragana characters do not represent any meaning, just the sounds. Hiragana can be used for foreign name translations if you prefer the softer look of the characters – however Katakana is more commonly used.

Katakana script

Originally considered men's writing, Katakana script has more angular strokes. Like Hiragana, the characters represent only sounds and individually do not convey meaning. These days Katakana is mainly used to write borrowed foreign words, places and names.

Further reading

If you would like to learn more, Wikipedia has an excellent article about the Japanese writing system.