The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	The Mojis' world is really mysterious!
Language	J
AuthorList	Toshio Fukutake
Affiliation	Department of Neurology, Kameda Medical Center
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 37 (3), 191-200, 2021
Received
Accepted
Abstract	Writing is among the greatest inventions in human history, perhaps the greatest invention, since it made history possible (Andrew Robinson). Long long ago, early human climbed down from primitive forests to grasslands, moving on two feet. This bipedal locomotion (bipedalism) freed the hands for making complex tools, meaningful gestures, and oral language explosively. Thereafter, alongside the development of human societies, writing had been invented independently in the Mesopotamia (clay plate), Egypt (papylus), China (oracle bones). The scripts were not only useful for economy but also symbolic for authority with an ability of remote transmission over oral language. After Kanji, logographic Chinese characters, came from China to Japan, Ondoku (Sino-Japanese pronunciations) and Kundoku (native-Japanese pronunciations) were adopted and then dual syllabographic scripts, Hiragana and Katakana, emerged. Until today, 'mixed Kanji and Kana writing' became the standard orthographic convention in Japan, which is generally regarded as the most complicated system of writing in the world, leading to unsuccessful proposals for Kanji abolition. The reason of its failure is that, in the modern information society, everyone can make and spread many writings more easily and more rapidly with typing on personal computers or smartphones than before. We, however, must be careful that easier writing may produce 'apparently knowledgeable persons' (from Plato: "Phaedrus") or fake politicians.
Keywords	bipedalism, writing, kanji/Chinese character, kana/Japanese syllabary, mixed kanji and kana writing