Kanji (漢字), one of the three scripts used in the Japanese language, are Chinese characters, which were first introduced to Japan in the 5th century via the Korean peninsula. Kanji are ideograms, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word. By combining characters, more words can be created.

What did Japanese use before kanji?

even before the introduction of 'Kanji' (Chinese characters) into Japan, there were local alphabets or syllabaries to record and carry messages. Most Japanese archaeologists, linguists and language professors used to deny this fact, insisting that there had been no specific letters nor alphabets in earliest Japan.

Is kanji old Japanese?

Kyūjitai (舊字體/旧字体, literally "old character forms") are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. ... In modern Japanese, kyūjitai that appear in the official spelling of proper names are sometimes replaced with the modern shinjitai form.