100-600: The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge ( Japanese : 明石海峡大橋 , Hepburn : Akashi Kaikyō Ōhashi ) is a suspension bridge which links the city of Kobe on the Japanese island of Honshu and Iwaya, Awaji [ ja ] on Awaji Island . It is part of the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway , and crosses the busy and turbulent Akashi Strait ( Akashi Kaikyō in Japanese). It was completed in 1998, and at
200-582: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford . He visited some 21 historic pubs, including the Trout Inn . He joined the Japan Society and the drama society, and became the honorary president of the karate and judo clubs. He played inter-college tennis, seeded number three out of six on the Merton team, and took golf lessons from a pro. In his three years at Merton he also climbed the highest peaks in three of
300-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
400-543: A bridge over the span. In 1955, two ferries sank in the Shiun Maru disaster during a storm, killing 168 people. The ensuing shock and public outrage convinced the Japanese government to develop plans for a bridge to cross the strait. Investigations for a bridge across the strait were first conducted by the Kobe municipal government in 1957, followed by an evaluation by the national Ministry of Construction in 1959. In 1961,
500-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
600-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
700-406: A level depth of 36–39 m and a bearing depth of 57 m. The towers are located in an area of strong tidal currents where water velocity exceeds 7 knots (about 3.6 m/s). The selected scour protection measure includes the installation of a filtering layer with a thickness of 2 m in a range of 10 m around the caisson, covered with riprap of 8 m thick. The bridge has three spans . The central span
800-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
900-477: A precious bridge to the unknown world, so to speak." In August 1974, when the prince was 14, he was sent to Melbourne , Australia, for a homestay. His father, then the crown prince Akihito, had a positive experience there on a trip the year before and encouraged his son to go as well. He stayed with the family of businessman Colin Harper. He got along with his host brothers, riding around Point Lonsdale , playing
1000-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
1100-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
SECTION 10
#17327722839331200-732: A staff member working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , at a tea gathering for Infanta Elena of Spain in November 1986, during her studies at the University of Tokyo . The prince was immediately captivated by her, and arranged for them to meet several times over the next few weeks. Because of this, they were pursued relentlessly by the press throughout 1987. Despite the Imperial Household Agency's disapproval of her, and her attending Balliol College, Oxford , for
1300-492: A variety of combinations. Twenty-eight patterns are used for occasions such as national or regional holidays , memorial days or festivities. The total cost is estimated at ¥ 500 billion or US$ 3.6 billion (per 1998 exchange rates). It is expected to be repaid by charging drivers a toll to cross the bridge. The toll is 2,300 yen and the bridge is used by approximately 23,000 cars per day. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] )
1400-593: Is Emperor of Japan . He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne following his father's abdication on 1 May 2019, beginning the Reiwa era. He is the 126th monarch according to Japan's traditional order of succession . Naruhito is the elder son of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko . He was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa), and became heir apparent following his father's accession in 1989. He
1500-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
1600-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
1700-477: Is 1,991 m (6,532 ft), and the two other sections are each 960 m (3,150 ft). The bridge is 3,911 m (12,831 ft) long overall. The two towers were originally 1,990 m (6,530 ft) apart, but the Great Hanshin earthquake on January 17, 1995 (magnitude 7.3, with epicenter 20 km west of Kobe) moved the towers (the only structures that had been erected at the time) such that
1800-417: Is 112 centimetres (44 in) in diameter and contains 36,830 strands of wire. The Akashi–Kaikyo bridge has a total of 1,737 illumination lights: 1,084 for the main cables, 116 for the main towers, 405 for the girders and 132 for the anchorages. Sets of three high-intensity discharge lamps in the colors red, green and blue are mounted on the main cables. The RGB color model and computer technology make for
1900-814: Is also a supporter of the World Organization of the Scout Movement and in 2006 attended the 14th Nippon Jamboree , the Japanese national jamboree organized by the Scout Association of Japan . The crown prince had also been an honorary vice-president of the Japanese Red Cross Society since 1994. In 2001, the crown prince visited the United Kingdom ; he met Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle . For two weeks in 2012,
2000-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
2100-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
SECTION 20
#17327722839332200-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
2300-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
2400-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
2500-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
2600-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
2700-409: Is interested in water policy and water conservation and likes to play the viola . He was an honorary president of the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics and is a supporter of the World Organization of the Scout Movement . Before becoming emperor, he was generally referred in the Japanese press by his princely title Kōtaishi (Crown Prince, 皇太子 lit. "Great Imperial Son"). Upon succeeding to
2800-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
2900-598: Is limited to performing ceremonial duties as delineated by the constitution, and even then he is constrained by the requirements of the constitution and the binding advice of the cabinet. For instance, while he formally appoints the Prime Minister, he is required to appoint the person designated by the National Diet . The enthronement ceremony took place on 22 October 2019, where he was duly enthroned in an ancient-style proclamation ceremony. On 23 July 2021,
3000-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
3100-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-665: Is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as
3300-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
3400-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
3500-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
3600-615: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
3700-883: The Cabinet after his death. The name of the next era under his successor will be established after his death or before his abdication . Naruhito was born on 23 February 1960 at 4:15 p.m. in the Imperial Household Agency Hospital in Tokyo Imperial Palace . As a prince, he later quipped, "I was born in a barn inside the moat". His parents, Akihito and Michiko , were then crown prince and crown princess of Japan, while his paternal grandfather, Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa), reigned as emperor. Reuters news agency reported that Naruhito's paternal grandmother, Empress Kōjun , had driven her daughter-in-law and grandchildren to depression in
3800-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
3900-604: The Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway , the easternmost route of the bridge system linking the islands of Honshu and Shikoku . The bridge crosses the Akashi Strait (width 4 km) between Kobe on Honshu and Iwaya on Awaji Island ; the other major part of the crossing is completed by the Ōnaruto Bridge , which links Awaji Island to Ōge Island across the Naruto Strait . Before the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
4000-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
4100-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
4300-406: The resonance frequency of the bridge to damp forces. The two main supporting towers rise 282.8 m (928 ft) above sea level, and the bridge can expand because of heat by up to 2 m (6.6 ft) over the course of a day. Each anchorage required 350,000 tonnes (340,000 long tons; 390,000 short tons) of concrete. The steel cables have 300,000 kilometres (190,000 mi) of wire: each cable
4400-458: The viola , having switched from the violin because he thought the latter "too much of a leader, too prominent" to suit his musical and personal tastes. He enjoys jogging , hiking , and mountaineering in his spare time. According to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida , the emperor and King Charles III 's families share an "intimate relationship". As the crown prince he was a patron of the 1998 Winter Olympics and 1998 Winter Paralympics . He
4500-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
4600-569: The 126th Emperor of Japan as of 1 May 2019. Following an abdication ceremony on the afternoon of 30 April, Akihito's reign and the Heisei era continued until the end of the day. Naruhito then succeeded him as emperor at the beginning of the day on 1 May, ushering in the Reiwa era . The transition took place at midnight, and Naruhito formally began his reign in a ceremony later that morning. In his first statement as emperor, he pledged to reflect deeply on
4700-557: The 1960s by persistently accusing Michiko of not being suitable for her son. His childhood was reported to be happy, and he enjoyed activities such as mountain climbing , riding , and learning the violin . He played with the children of the royal chamberlain , and he was a fan of the Yomiuri Giants in the Central League , his favorite player being No. 3, later team manager, Shigeo Nagashima . One day, Naruhito found
4800-492: The Imperial Household Agency launched an Instagram account for the imperial family, which received 300,000 followers by the end of its debut on the platform. The account was reportedly launched to "reach out" to Japan's younger generations. The Emperor and Empress embarked on a three-day state visit to the United Kingdom in late June 2024, at the invitation of King Charles III . The imperial couple had originally planned to visit in 2020 as guests of Queen Elizabeth II , but
4900-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
5000-419: The Kobe side. 1A consists of an underground circular retaining wall filled with roller-compacted concrete , 2P and 3P are circular underwater spread-foundation caisson structures, and 4A is a rectangular direct foundation. 2P is located at the edge of the sea plateau at a level depth of 40–50 m and a bearing depth of 60 m, and 3P is located at the symmetrical point to 2P with respect to the bridge's center, at
5100-706: The Ministry of Construction and Japan National Railways jointly commissioned the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) to conduct a technical study, and the JSCE established a committee to investigate five potential routes between Honshu and Shikoku. In 1967, the committee compiled the results of the technical study, concluding that a bridge across the Akashi Strait would face "extremely severe design and construction conditions, which have no similar examples in
SECTION 50
#17327722839335200-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
5300-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
5400-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
5500-532: The bridge due to anti-seismic building methods. Construction was finished on time in September 1996. The bridge was opened for traffic on April 5, 1998, in a ceremony officiated by the then-Crown Prince Naruhito and his spouse Crown Princess Masako of Japan along with Construction Minister Tsutomu Kawara. The bridge has four substructures: two main piers (located beneath the water) and two anchorages (on land). These are denoted 1A, 2P, 3P, and 4A in sequence from
5600-580: The central span had to be increased by 1 m (3.3 ft). The central span was required to be greater than 1,500 m to accommodate maritime traffic; it was concluded before construction began that a larger span between 1950 and 2050 meters would minimize construction costs. The bridge was designed with a dual-hinged stiffening girder system, allowing the structure to withstand winds of 286 kilometres per hour (178 mph), earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 8.5, and harsh sea currents. The bridge also contains tuned mass dampers that are designed to operate at
5700-660: The constituent countries of the United Kingdom: Scotland's Ben Nevis , Wales's Snowdon and Scafell Pike in England. While at Oxford, he also was able to go sightseeing across Europe and meet much of its royalty, including the British royal family . The relatively relaxed manners of the United Kingdom's royals amazed him: " Queen Elizabeth II , he noted with surprise, poured her own tea and served
5800-487: The course followed by his father, and fulfill his constitutional responsibility "as the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people of Japan". Under Article 4 of the Constitution , the emperor's role is defined as entirely ceremonial and representative. Unlike most other constitutional monarchs, the emperor lacks even nominal powers related to government; he is barred from making political statements. His role
5900-443: The crown prince temporarily took charge of his father's duties while the emperor underwent and recovered from heart bypass surgery. Naruhito's birthday was named " Mount Fuji Day" by Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures because of his reported love of the mountain. On 1 December 2017, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Naruhito's father, Emperor Akihito, would abdicate on 30 April 2019 , and that Naruhito would become
6000-574: The crown prince with the title Prince Hiro ( 浩宮 , Hiro-no-miya ) on 23 February 1991. Her first pregnancy was announced in December 1999, but she miscarried . They finally had one daughter, Aiko, Princess Toshi ( 敬宮愛子内親王 , Toshi-no-miya Aiko Naishinnō ) , born 1 December 2001 at the Imperial Household Agency Hospital at Tokyo Imperial Palace. The Japanese imperial succession debate started around
6100-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
SECTION 60
#17327722839336200-646: The emperor marked his 64th birthday with a message mourning the victims of the Noto earthquake , and expressed desire to visit the affected areas. He had previously received condolences for the victims from King Charles III of the United Kingdom in early January. The emperor and empress visited Wajima and Suzu , two earthquake-stricken cities in the Noto Peninsula on 22 March. The couple later visited an evacuation center in Anamizu on 12 April. In April 2024,
6300-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
6400-705: The forum's opening ceremony titled "Waterways Connecting Kyoto and Local Regions". Visiting Mexico in March 2006, he gave the keynote address at the opening ceremony for the Fourth World Water Forum, " Edo and Water Transport". And in December 2007, he gave a commemorative talk at the opening ceremony for the First Asia-Pacific Water Summit, "Humans and Water: From Japan to the Asia-Pacific Region". He plays
6500-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
6600-611: The geography club. He graduated from Gakushuin University in March 1982 with a Bachelor of Letters degree in history . In July 1983, he undertook a three-month intensive English course before entering Merton College, Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, where he studied until 1986. He did not, however, submit his thesis A Study of Navigation and Traffic on the Upper Thames in the 18th Century until 1989. He later revisited these years in his book, The Thames and I –
6700-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
6800-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
6900-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
7000-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
7100-466: The new emperor opened the 2020 Summer Olympics (originally scheduled to be played in 2020, postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic ) hosted in Tokyo, just as his grandfather, Emperor Shōwa, had done in 1964 . The imperial couple's first trip abroad as emperor and empress took place in September 2022, to the United Kingdom to attend the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. They visited Indonesia in June 2023, their first state visit. In February 2024,
7200-615: The next two years, he remained interested in her. He proposed to her three times before the Imperial Palace announced their engagement on 19 January 1993. The wedding took place on 9 June the same year at the Imperial Shinto Hall in Tokyo before 800 invited guests, including many of Europe's heads of state and royalty. By the time of their marriage, his father had ascended the throne, so the prince had been invested as
7300-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
7400-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
7500-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
7600-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
7700-410: The remains of an ancient roadway on the palace grounds, sparking a lifelong fascination with the history of transportation , which would provide the subject of his bachelor's and master's degrees in history. He later said, "I have had a keen interest in roads since childhood. On roads, you can go to the unknown world. Since I have been leading a life where I have few chances to go out freely, roads are
7800-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
7900-725: The sandwiches." He also went skiing with Liechtenstein 's Prince Hans-Adam II , holidayed in Mallorca in the Mediterranean with Spain's King Juan Carlos I , and sailed with Norway 's Crown Prince Harald and Crown Princess Sonja and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands . Upon his return to Japan, he enrolled once more in Gakushūin University to earn a Master of Humanities degree in history, successfully earning his degree in 1988. Naruhito first met Owada Masako,
8000-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
8100-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
8200-526: The state visit was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The rescheduled visit went ahead despite concerns of postponement due to the British general election campaign that began in late May. It was the first state visit in modern times to take place during an active election campaign. Unless otherwise noted (as BC), years are in CE / AD Imperial Consort and Regent Empress Jingū
8300-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
8400-549: The throne he is referred to as "His Majesty the Emperor" ( 天皇陛下 , Tennō Heika ) , which may be shortened to "His Majesty" ( 陛下 , Heika ) . In writing, the emperor is also referred to formally as " The Reigning Emperor " ( 今上天皇 , Kinjō Tennō ) . The era of his reign bears the name " Reiwa " ( 令和 ) pronounced [ɾeːwa] , and according to custom he will be referred to as Emperor Reiwa ( 令和天皇 , Reiwa Tennō , see " posthumous name ") by order of
8500-475: The time when it became increasingly clear over the following years that Princess Aiko would be their only child. The emperor made unprecedented remarks on the issue on June 19, 2024 at a news conference in the imperial palace. He is interested in water policy and water conservation. In March 2003, in his capacity as honorary president of the Third World Water Forum , he delivered a speech at
8600-602: The time, was the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, at 1,991 metres (6,532 ft). Currently, it is the second-longest, behind the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey that was opened in March 2022. The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is one of the key links of the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project , which created three routes across the Seto Inland Sea . The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge forms part of
8700-651: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Naruhito The Emperor The Empress The Emperor Emeritus The Empress Emerita Naruhito (born 23 February 1960)
8800-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
8900-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
9000-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
9100-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
9200-412: The violin and tennis , and climbing Uluru together. Once he even played the violin for dignitaries at a state dinner at Government House hosted by Governor-General Sir John Kerr . When the prince was four years old he was enrolled in the prestigious Gakushūin school system, where many of Japan's elite families and narikin ( nouveaux riches ) send their children. In senior high, Naruhito joined
9300-577: The world's long-span bridges" and recommending an additional study. In response to the report, the Honshu–Shikoku Bridge Authority (now the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company ) was established in 1970, which conducted extensive investigations, including sea trials to establish the construction method of a submarine foundation. In 1973, a bridge with a central span of 1,780 meters on the route
9400-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
9500-574: Was approved, but construction was halted due to poor economic conditions. The original plan called for a mixed railway-road bridge, but when construction on the bridge began in April 1988, it was restricted to road only, with six lanes. Actual construction did not begin until May 1988 and involved more than 100 contractors. The Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995 did not do substantial damage to
9600-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
9700-405: Was built, ferries carried passengers across the Akashi Strait. A major passageway for shipping, it is also known for its gales, heavy rain, storms, and other natural disasters. The Sekirei Maru sinking [ ja ] in stormy weather in December 1945,while carrying more than three times its capacity of 100 passengers, killed 304 people, first stirring public discussion on the possibility of
9800-425: Was formally invested as Crown Prince of Japan in 1991. He attended Gakushūin schools in Tokyo and later studied history at Gakushuin University and English at Merton College, Oxford . In June 1993, he married diplomat Owada Masako . They have one daughter: Aiko . Continuing his grandfather's and father's boycott over the enshrinement of convicted war criminals , Naruhito has never visited Yasukuni Shrine . He
9900-735: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
10000-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
#932067