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The Japanese writing system remained largely unchanged up until the 19th century Meiji era educational reforms. These reforms included:
Western influences during the Meiji Era, and continued influences during the American occupation after World War II, also had important effects on the Japanese written language.
Some Japanese scholars suggested a radical change: abandon Japanese completely and adopt French or English as the national language. Although this suggestion was not adopted, the importation of foreign words (gairaigo 外来語) and the use of romaji has increased.
Another effect was to change the writing direction of Japanese. Until the Meiji era, Japanese text was written top to bottom, with columns advancing right to left. The Meiji era saw the first use of horizontally written Japanese. Before World War II, this horizontal text was written from right to left, so as to be consistent with traditional Japanese writing. Pages in books were turned from left to right, contrary to the Western style. After the end of World War II, horizontal text started to be written from left to right, in the common western style. Both vertical and horizontal (left to right) writing are in use today. Generally, newspapers and books use vertical text with pages turning from left to right, while magazines and print advertising are split evenly between the two formats. It is not uncommon even to see horizontal and vertical text on the same page.
Occasionally, horizontal writing from right to left can still be seen, when the reader is likely to encounter the text in that direction (i.e. on the sides of vehicles, where text is often written from the front to the rear on both sides of the vehicle). This can sometimes cause a funny situation. "Kaba", a type of tree, was used as a name for a frigate in WWII but was spelled "Baka", "idiot" on the side of the ship.
Later reforms include changing the kana representation to accord with modern pronunciation. For more information, see Historical kana usage.
One of the less well-known aspects of the modern Japanese writing system is that it allows for transmitting information usually done by using different words or by adding extra descriptive words in other languages. For example, Kanji watashi 私 "I" is often used in formal writing and by both sexes. Hiragana watashi わたし tends to be used in informal writing such as a diary or a letter to a friend and by a female. Katakana watashi ワタシ is used only rarely; Katakana is primarily used to spell out foreign words. Romaji watashi is rarely used and when it is, is used with a special message in mind.
When a Japanese reader encounters the different script, he can infer the nuance and the subject of the sentence. In manga (to a lesser extent, video games), encoding information by script shifts plays a significant role as it enables artists to pack more information in a little space. For example, with the single word watashi in Katakana readers will expect a foreign character to appear next, without even a single drawing of a foreigner beforehand. This could also be used for a dramatic effect coupled with the conjugation of verbs. A female disguised as a male could be written to use Kanji watashi when her secret is kept with the appropriate conjugation of verbs. Then when the secret is revealed, she would be written to use Hiragana watashi without taking off her disguise or any change in the way she is drawn. This technique could be inverted if a male is disguised as a female. With these techniques, even artists with limited drawing skill could represent different characters easily. This technique is used in other forms of literature, with similar or even more dramatic effects.
In addition to this, kanji compounds can be given arbitrary readings for stylistic purposes: in Natsume Soseki's short story The Fifth Night the example 接続って can be found, which would usually be written 繋がって or just つながって .
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