...the reason most people cite "asian success" in multi-cultural discussions is to juxtapose their "success" with african american "failure." as it relates to affirmative action the argument implicitly goes something like this..."THEY [asians] don't need it...why do YOU?" which leads to questions dealing with inferiority of some sort... --L.K Spence
Era Years AD Scripts and Literacy Yamato c. 350710 Chinese characters and Buddhism introduced Nara 710794 First surviving history and poetry books in Kanji Heian 7941185 Two forms of Kana develop out of Kanji; stories in Kana Muromachi 13331568 Romanization of Japanese by Jesuit missionary Edo/Tokugawa 16001868 Some European words; a variety of schools teach reading Meiji 18681912 Many European words; new words coined on Chinese model; 46 year compulsory education; limit number of Kanji; KanaKanji mix common; Hepburn romanization Showa 19261989 Lists of official Kanji;9-year compulsory education; 12 -year schooling common; manga ('comics') and juku ('cram schools') become popular Heisei 1989 Additional Kanji for education and names; no school on one Sataurday