ABSTRACT
The structural properties of the two Japanese scripts, kana and kanji, are described. Kanji characters are classified as either single or compound, with the single characters being subclassified as simple or complex. Some questions are raised with respect to the organization of the lexicon. The available evidence suggests that there is direct access to semantics from kanji stimuli but that kana characters have to be translated into a phonological code before lexical access is possible. More detailed analysis of lexical access in Japanese awaits the appropriate experiments.
