ABSTRACT
Japanese is a language with a writing system of the highest complexity, as discussed in Coulmas (2003) and Sproat (2000). In Cook (2004) for example it is called ‘the language with probably the most complex writing system in the world’ because it combines several very different scripts into one graphic space. In this chapter, we will focus on how English is actually used, spelled, pronounced and even assimilated in Japan; partly then this is how Japanese is affected by English rather than how English is used in Japan. This chapter concentrates on one nonEnglish-speaking country, hoping this can give a greater depth in understanding the English writing system (EWS) in the multilingual world.
