Japanese
Japanese
(日本語)
is a Japonic language
with approximately 125M speakers speakers.
It is written using the
Japanese (alias for Han + Hiragana + Katakana)
script.
Its BCP 47 language code is ja.
Japanese (日本語, Nihongo) is the official language of Japan and is spoken by virtually the entire population of approximately 125 million. It is notable for its complex writing system, which uses three scripts simultaneously: kanji (logographic characters borrowed from Chinese), hiragana (a phonetic syllabary for native words and grammar), and katakana (a syllabary used primarily for foreign words and emphasis).
Japanese is an agglutinative language with a subject-object-verb sentence structure. It has an elaborate system of honorifics (keigo) that reflects social hierarchies and relationships.
Writing Systems Used for Japanese
Frequently Asked Questions
What alphabet or script does Japanese use?
What direction is Japanese written?
How many people speak Japanese?
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Language Facts
- BCP 47 Code
- ja
- ISO 639-3
- jpn
- Status
- living
- Speakers
- 125M speakers
- Language Family
- Japonic
- Scripts
- 1
- Primary Script
- Japanese (alias for Han + Hiragana + Katakana)
Other Japanese (alias for Han + Hiragana + Katakana) Languages
None found.
Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.