The classification of Japanese is uncertain, some scholars place it in the Altaic language group (comprising Turkish and Mongolian among others) while others place it in Austronesian language group (comprising Malay, Indonesian and Hawaiian among others). Japanese is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker, listener and the person mentioned in conversation.

The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: modified Chinese characters called kanji, and two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana. The Latin alphabet, rōmaji, is also often used in modern Japanese. Knowledge of English remains sparse in Japan, especially outside the larger cities and tourist areas.