Japanese writing system
The modern Japanese writing system (日本語の表記体系, Nihongo no hyōki taikei) uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters; and phonographic kana, which evolved from cursives/components of Chinese characters. Modern kana consists of two sets of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalized Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific terms, and sometimes for emphasis.