why do the japanese read backwards??

Question

ive heard their books start at the back and you read a book by going backwards?

what i meant was that the book is still read left to right, but the book starts from the last page and goes backwards (from a western point of view)

Answer 1

Actually, Japanese books may open from the left or the right, depending on the direction of the script.

Traditionally, Japanese is written VERTICALLY, and reads from right to left. Books printed in this style open from the left (opposite to the way English books open).

Since the Meiji Period, Japanese has also sometimes been written HORIZONTALLY, in which case it reads from left to right (like English). Books printed in this style open from the right.

Answer 2

Exactly as you said, only from a westerner's point of view. The Japanese would say that you & all the other westerners start the book backwards too.

Answer 3

It's all in how writing progressed over the ages. In western culture we start a book reading left to right from front to back. Earliest books like the Bible were written that way. In others it is back to front, top to bottom left to right. Hieroglyphics as in Egypt all read in columns top to bottom. There is no real answer to the question except cultural acceptance and the norm. If there is any clue, Japanese or Chinese writing is more like hieroglyphics than other forms (such as ours or Cyrillic...similar to that used in Russia) where letters represent a certain sound rather than a concept. Regardless, the original written languages all read from left to right or top to bottom. And actually the left hand/right hand stone and hammer and chisel makes a lot of sense. For a similar reason with the development of paper and ink and most people are right handed, as one wrote from left to right, their hand did not drag through wet ink as a left-handed person's might.

Answer 4

I'm no expert of Japanese, but I can explain this for other languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

Right-to-left writing came before left-to-right. In part, it has to do with how chisel and stone writing was done. When a right-handed person (the majority of the population) uses a chisel, they put the chisel in their left hand (hammer in the right).

In a left-to-right language, this means that you run the risk of the chisel slipping and damaging what you're already written.

With right-to-left writing, if you slip, you gouge an area that contains nothing yet. If so, you just move to the next line.

When charcoal writing came about, right-to-left writing no longer made sense for right-handed people, since you'd smudge what was already written. So, more modern languages are based on going from left to right.

Answer 5

The don't "start from the back." The front of the book is our back. Lots of languages are like that. Arabic too. And they often read bottom to top and right to left as well. It is just by chance the we read/write left to right.

Answer 6

Traditional books are although today many are arranged in the European manner. When you can read Japanese the arrangement of the text will be apparent.

Answer 7

Actually, languages that are written from right to left were created first (like Hebrew and Aramaic), so it's English that's backwards.

Answer 8

just the binding is different. yes the book will start from the left, but this is nothing to be freaked out about. a lot of asian countries' books are like that as well.

Answer 9

I don't know the specific reason as to why books are printed that way, but newspapers are printed from left-to-right and most magazine articles are, also.

Advertisements in general are printed in horizontal left-to-right text.

I think it's becoming more obsolete to do it the old-fashioned way.

Answer 10

Thats the first time ive heard that 1.