By William Lise
There is a persistent myth regarding the role of kanji characters used to write Japanese as being ideograms that represent meaning directly, without relation or connection to a specific word or words in Japanese. This misunderstanding has largely been discredited, but it lives on, promoted by some people who believe that kanji provide a method of representing meaning superior to alphabetic orthography used in most languages because the characters lead the reader directly to the meaning.
Many of the believers of this attractive kanji ideogram myth who I have heard expounding on this mistaken theory appear to not to be very skilled at the Japanese language itself, and many I have seen are not functional in spoken Japanese; yet they profess a liking for kanji characters. A kanji dilettante such as this—a member of what I will call The Kanjidilettanti—can occasionally find indirect support from people who should know better: beginning or highly inexperienced Japanese-to-English translators, who sometimes can be heard to claim that they know the meaning of a kanji or kanji compound but don’t know or cannot remember the reading thereof. I say nonsense; well, I say something slightly more descriptive, but let’s keep this discussion family-friendly.
One time I heard a native English-speaking Japanese-to-English translator claim that he knew that 集積回路 means integrated circuit, even though he could not remember that it is read しゅうせきかいろ, therefore affirming his view that kanji are ideograms. Hang on just a minute, Kyle Kanjidilettante! All you are saying is that the compound 集積回路 is for you a logogram for the English expression integrated circuit, which comprises two specific words, thereby invalidating the assertion that kanji are ideograms. You only get arrive at the meaning of integrated circuit if you know those words and their meaning, independent of the kanji. Whether kanji stand for Japanese words or English words, they are logograms. The people who find that disappointing might better busy themselves with other aspects of Japan that they imagine as being exotic or superior.