Editing Scriptio continua (section)

=== Japanese script ===
[[Japanese language|Japanese]] implements extensive use of [[Chinese characters]]—called [[kanji]] in Japanese. However, due to the radical differences between the Chinese and Japanese languages, writing Japanese exclusively in kanji would make it extremely difficult to read.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Japanese Language & Characters - Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji |url=http://www.saiga-jp.com/japanese_language.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209224627/http://saiga-jp.com/japanese_language.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=February 9, 2006 |access-date=2017-09-22 |website=www.saiga-jp.com}}</ref> This can be seen in texts that predate the modern [[kana]] system, in which Japanese was written entirely in kanji and {{tlit|ja|[[man'yōgana]]}}, the latter of which are written solely to indicate a word's pronunciation as opposed to its meaning. For that reason, different [[syllabary]] systems called kana were developed to differentiate phonetic [[grapheme]]s from [[ideographic]] ones.

Modern Japanese is typically written using three different types of graphemes, the first being kanji and the latter two being kana systems, the cursive [[hiragana]] and the angular [[katakana]]. While spaces are not normally used in writing, boundaries between words are often quickly perceived by Japanese speakers since kana are usually visually distinct from kanji. Japanese speakers also know that certain words, morphemes, and parts of speech are typically written using one of the three systems. Kanji is typically used for words of Japanese and Chinese origin as well as [[content word]]s (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). Hiragana is typically used for native Japanese words, as well as commonly known words, phrases, and [[grammatical particle]]s, as well as inflections of content words like verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Katakana is typically used for loanwords from languages other than Chinese, [[onomatopoeia]], and emphasized words.

Like Chinese, Japanese lacked any sort of punctuation until interaction with Western civilizations became more common. Punctuation was adopted during the [[Meiji period]].

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Examples of Japanese spacing
|-
! Script
! Text
|-
| &nbsp;
| Bethany Hills and Akira Takamori are living in Tokyo.
|- 
| Standard Japanese writing, without spacing
| {{lang|ja|ベサニー・ヒルズと高森昭は東京に住んでいます。}}
|-
| With spacing
| {{lang|ja|ベサニー・ヒルズ　と　高森　昭　は　東京　に　住んでいます。}}
|-
| Spacing only in kana, sometimes employed in media for children
| {{lang|ja|ベサニー・ヒルズ　と　たかもり　あきら　は　とうきょう　に　すんでいます。}}
|-
| {{tlit|ja|Rōmaji}}
| {{tlit|ja|Besanī Hiruzu to Takamori Akira wa Tōkyō ni sundeimasu.}}
|-
| Kanji and {{tlit|ja|man'yōgana}}
| {{lang|ja|邊三仁伊日流頭吐高森昭歯東京仁須無弟位麻須}}
|}