John Hopkins comments

Mr Howell makes the excellent point that Japanese clinging to their kanamajiri writing system is more of a mental problem than a practical one. Surveys by this linguistics Ph.D. have shown that suitably modified romanisation may perfectly well be used to transcribe the front pages of major newspapers (see my recent letter in Japanese to the Asahi). We should also recall the existence of famous novels available on audio CD. The ability of university professors to give a comprehensible lecture orally is another point that should be made. (I lectured in Japanese for over 25 years.) In sum, the Japanese seem to be clinging to their incredibly obscure writing system as a convenient defence against incursion by foreign linguistic cultures. A recent case in point is the insistence that nursing candidates from Indonesia and the Philippines must pass a difficult exam in Japanese (i.e. Kanji and katakana English) medical terminology. This has proved to be a highly effective barrier. It seems that the national preference for a “closed Japan" is winning out over the definite need for a large number of extra nurses to fill the current gap.

dear presto345: many thanks for your polite and beautifully expressed tour around this beautiful country. Your English is of a very high standard, which cannot be said for American commenters like JeffLee (perhaps that's because he went to Notre Damn?). As for Kamakura's attempt to have some parts of the city recognised by UNESCO, I have lived here for 34 years and agree that many of the streets are a mess, being crowded with power poles and festooned with a jungle of overhead wires. Europe solved that problem 40 years ago. Japan still has a lot of work to do in that area.