Linguists aren't sure how Japanese is related to other languages, if at all. Some believe it and Korean fall under the Altaic language family, which also includes Mongolian and Turkish.

There are many different dialects in Japanese. This is related to the nation's geography.

Steep mountains, deep valleys, and scattered islands help keep many communities isolated and cultivates the development of dialects. Some are so different that speakers of one dialect cannot understand people from another area of Japan. Standard Japanese is taught and understood everywhere.

Japanese was first written with Chinese characters and Chinese grammar. It now uses both Chinese characters, called kanji, and symbols, called kana. Each kana symbol represents a syllable instead of a consonant or vowel. Some words are written using only kanji or kana, and some words are written with a combination of the two.

Because so many words in Japanese are homophones—they sound the same but have different meanings—exchanging business cards is an absolute necessity to know the spelling of a Japanese name.

Like Korean, the Japanese language reflects the social differences among speakers. Different styles of speech are used for friends, strangers, elders, teachers, and others.

Many Japanese words have been adopted into English, such as "karaoke," "kamikaze," "futon," and "sushi."