164 Invading Languages 8. Robinson, A. The Story of Writing, London: Thames & Hudson, 1995 9, 10. ibid. `Sign simplicity or efficiency in representing the sounds of a language cannot be the sole criteria of survival. If they were, Chinese characters would have disappeared in China and been replaced by an alphabet; and the Japanese would never have borrowed Chinese characters. Political and economic power, religious and cultural prestige and the existence of a major literature all play a part in the historical fate of a script.' 8 In terms of ease and efficiency Europeans need to recognise around 52 alphabetic signs whereas the Japanese need to recognise around 2000 symbols or `Kanji', and highly educated scholars would need to be familiar with around 5000. The Japanese also have two sets of phonetic scripts. In addition to `Kanji', their name for the pictorial Chinese script, they also have `Katakana' and `Hiragana'. These are a simplification of some of the historic Chinese characters. Katakana is a formal script with some 46 signs, made mostly from straight lines. This is now used like italic and used for foreign names or adopted words. Hiragana is the more curved, informal script that also has around 46 signs. Robinson 9 recounts an interesting tale where practical and potentially dangerous situations during the Second World War prompted the army to reduce the number of Kanji to 1235 and had plans to reduce it further. However, at the same time the newspaper reports from the front were using obscure Kanji characters in the belief that it would carry a certain austerity and impress the reading public; a wonderful example of language as an instrument of the state. context Since the 1980s, the Roman alphabet has begun to `invade' Japanese writing through advertising. One could think of this invasion as a dialect ­ referred to as Romaji ­ favoured by Japanese youth as a form of rebellion. The fact that it irritates their elders may well be a large part of why they use it. Although the Roman alphabet has a certain prestige in Japan, the readiness to adopt it may be borne out of disillusionment with a rigorous linguistic system and the traditions it represents. `With the word "love" in Roman letters we can work that into a graphic design and it carries a kind of cuteness and charm. But the Chinese ideogram for "love", we couldn't put that on a kid's school bag.' Head of Product development Sony Japan 1984 10 Japanese society has mixed views on the appearance of `Romaji'. Some see it as an example of Japan's post-modernity while others see it as a threat to their culture and traditions. A shift in the use of language is often seen as a threat to the established order of a culture ­ language is closely bound to identity ­ and the invasion of one script on another is likely to be viewed as a threat to cultural identity. Opposite. Public sculpture in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Left. Detail from a flyer offering a `flat rate' for a mobile phone talk plan.