The Northwest times. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1947-1955, 1947-10-21
LANGUAGE REFORM:
Japanese Find SS1 IdeOgraphs
Sufficient in Written Form

TOKYO, Oct. 81 : A committee
on language reform, working under
the auspices Of the Education Min
istry, is reported to have reached
agreement on a list of 881 ideo-
graphs which Is intended to consti-
tute the standard for an official
simpufied language. Although no
formal action has been taken as
yet. 1t is expected that, with Cab
met approval, this list will soon be
adopted for instruction in the nine
years OF schooling which have be-
come compulsory under the new
6-3 school system.
This list of 1871 ideographs re-
presents by far the best achieve
ment made so far among all the
of-repeated attempts at Language
simplification. The complicated ma
ture of the Japanese written lang
uage, involving the use of thou
sands of different ideographs, has
been recognized as serious OBJ
stacle to popular education. Pre-
vious attempts to reduce the num-
Der of ideographs have not been
particularly successful, for al
though the Education Ministry had
already tried to limit the number
Of ideographs in general use to
1850, even ordinary newspapers
until recently commonly used as
many as 5000 Such C number is
certainly far too large with only o
common elementary school educa-
ton who constituted the bulk Of
the nations population.
But 1t has long been apparent
that there is no practical necessity
TO- u n g so m a n y char
a C tiers to expire SIS ade-
quately all the ideas which ordin-
arily need to be expressed. With
in. the last couple Of years the
newspapers have found that they
could reduce the numbers of ideo-
graphs in use to about 1900 OF
$500 with very satisfactory re-
suits. Now committee of experts
has come forth with list of only
1871 ideographs which is considered
sufficient to. meet all needs save
for specialized technical purposes.
Such an abbreviated list is suf-
ficiently simple to enable its COM
plete mastery by everyone with ease
within thh nine years of compul.
sorry schooling. There should be
no loss of richness to the japanese
written language, fer the use CT
the flexible kama" oyllabery as j
supplement will satisfactorily fill
whatever void there may result
from the elimination of certain
ideographs. If the general prac-
tice of using only these 881 ideo-
graphs can be successfully foster
ed, the problem of q written lang
uage too difficult for the solution
will have been solved. And the SOL
ution will have been a much easier
and more natural one than trying
arbitrarily to fit the Japanese
language into an essentially alien
and incompatible form like Roman
j.
Now the only question is, How
readily will the public confine it.
self to the use of only these 881
ideographs? To be sure, II only
these 881 ideographs are taught In
the schools, the younger generation
will tend to know nothing more
But if that portion of the present
generation of adults which happens
to be more literate than average
insists on continuing to use more
than these 881 ideographs, there is
likely to be an irresistible pull
which may eventually result In
tearing down the Official limita-
tons.
Fortunately, however, the chances
are more than good that the 881
telegraph limit can be maintained
For the problem is not technical
b ut psychological. Technically
these is no reason why the Japan
csc language cannot be expressed
richly and lucidly with 881 ideo-
graphs. AS matter of fact, some
Of the greatest masterpieces OF ia
panese literature were written sole.
ly in kama" without the use of any
ideographs at all. Purity of STYLE
would probably be actually en-
HANGED by the elimination Of most
Of the ideographs.
The reason why the japanese
written language was never sue,
cessfully simplified before lies MOI
SO much in the nature of the lang.
auge itself as in the mental at.
titudc Of the Japanese people. In.
stead OF valuing clarity of thought
japanese literary tradition h a
heretofore made a fetish of ornat,
classicism. 1t was more an attitud,
OF mind, or perhaps servility O
spirit, rather than anything inner
ent in the Japanese language it
SELF which made tic Japanese lit
terati ape the journalistic pedanti
cism of the Chinese classical styl,
and its Japanese derivants. which
made the use of a l1rge number o
ioeographs necessary. Once tn
mind Is freed from claverv ~ q,