It was a valiant effort. But after over 100 years, a Japanese group that thinks the language would be much improved by writing it in the Latin alphabet has shuttered its doors.
The fight against “irrational” kanji-kana mixing
The group, the Romaji Association (ローマ字会), dissolved earlier this year in March. Founded in 1921 (the 10th year of the Taisho era), the Association advocated for scrapping the “irrational” mixture of kanji (ideographic) and kana (syllabic) characters and instead writing Japanese in the Latin alphabet, or romaji (ローマ字).
The group never enjoyed huge popularity. The government suppressed it during World War II, even jailing some of its members, for championing the writing system of the enemy. After losing most of its assets during the war, the group moved its headquarters to Kyoto in 1965. At its peak, it numbered around 2,000 members nationwide, with 25 local chapters.
However, most of the old guard has died off – and fewer people in Japan have shown interest in scrapping the current mix of kanji and kana. In recent years, the group has only numbered around 20 souls.
For years, the group published its own magazine, Romaji World (ローマ字世界), that ran articles in romanized Japanese. The association published its last issue in December 2019.
The Quixotic attempt to change Japanese writing
The Japanese writing system evolved over the course of hundreds of years. In the Nara period, nobles wrote in either kanbun (Chinese) or in manyogana (万葉仮名), which used Chinese characters phonetically. The Heian period saw the birth of katakana and hiragana, which were derived from the manyogana characters.
Today, all three writing systems – kanji plus the kana syllabaries – remain in active use. Hiragana is used to represent conjugated endings and parts of speech, while katana is used primarily for loan words or emphasis.
Various people have advocated dumping kanji at various points in Japanese history. Many have advocated replacing it with hiragana and/or katakana.
Others have advocated for ditching all three of Japan’s writing systems. Some even invented their own distinct syllabaries and alphabets to replace kana.
The Romaji Association and its friends put their full support behind the Latin alphabet instead. The first leader of the Romaji Association, Tanakadate Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘), invented what would become known as the Nihon-shiki (日本式) romanization system. He believed his system more accurately represented Japanese pronunciation than the Hepburn romanization system. The Japanese government would adopt its own standard – the kunreishiki, which merged parts of both systems – in 1937.
Tanakadate was dedicated to his cause. His publisher released his 1948 book, The Passage of Time, with Japanese writing and romaji written side-by-side. He wrote most of his notes, including notes to his family, in romaji. He even once refused to attend a talk when the hosts asked him not to talk about all that romaji business.
Other failed linguistic causes
More recently, the Romaji Association was led by ethnologist Umesao Tadao (梅棹忠夫), who was a long-time proponent of abolishing kanji-kana. Particularly after he lost his vision, Umesao bemoaned the number of homophones in the Japanese language, due in large part to the use of kanji character readings.
Umesao was also a dedicated proponent of the language Esperanto, created in 1887 with the aspiration of becoming an “international language”. In other words, he had a soft spot for failed linguistic causes.
Oshima Chusei, the last leader of the Romaji Association, said, “We’ll look for new ways to promulgate the use of romaji that our founders fought for.”
However, judging from recent membership numbers, it feels like Oshima & Co. are trying to sell a product that no one in Japan is buying.
What to read next
Beware These False Friends Between English and Japanese!
Sources
「日本語表記をローマ字に」運動100年超の全国組織解散 「漢字仮名交じりは非合理」. Kyoto Shimbun
ローマ字論. Wikipedia JP
ローマ字会を訪問しました。Yatte miyou
田中舘愛橘. Wikipedia JP
ローマ字表記（ヘボン式・日本式・訓令式）の違いについて. Nihongo Applied Linguistics
漢字廃止論. Wikipedia JP
