As Japan struggles with the mushrooming of English loanwords in its midst, there are signs that the Japanese language might be exploring another new relationship with English — by absorbing the English alphabet and even some grammar directly.
This emerging trend is not to do with the superficial profusion of English lettering in advertising copy and the names of buildings. In fact it is potentially far more profound, and suggests Japanese may be on the way to adopting the English alphabet as its fourth set of characters along with hiragana, katakana and kanji.
One futurist who is predicting such a scenario is Jun Yamada, editor of a paperback book series at major Japanese-language publisher Kobunsha. When he launched the series in 2001, Yamada broke new ground by presenting the copy in lines running left to right, top to bottom on the pages, and by starting the book at the front as in Western publications — unlike typical Japanese books that start at what Westerners think of as the back, and have copy running top to bottom, right to left.