Japanese is one of the oldest languages in the world. Visitors to Japan should not fear communicating with the residents, as most Japanese are able to understand enough English to help you. As part of the education system in Japan, students are required to learn English.

Writing Japanese is very complicated. Three different character sets exist in this language: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Regardless of which character set is chosen, there are also two distinct ways that Japanese text can be written: Traditional Japanese style and Western style. The difference is on how the characters appear. With the traditional style, characters are read vertically from top to bottom. In western style, the characters are read horizontally from left to right. Use your international cell phone rentals to find a translation service near you in Japan.