During the Meiji period, Wikipedia says there were advocates of ending the traditional system and switching to a Romaji. The idea never caught on.... but is there a way it could have? The challenge: Anytime after Commodore Perry shows up (1854), is there any non-ASB way the Japanese would use some sort of Latin alphabet?
I am thinking something similar to how the Turks or Vietnam switched to Latin based letters. In fact, the entry on the Vietnamese alphabet lists this:
I am thinking something similar to how the Turks or Vietnam switched to Latin based letters. In fact, the entry on the Vietnamese alphabet lists this:
From what I understand, Japan was a highly literate country even prior to the Meiji period, but I might be wrong.Because the period of education necessary to gain initial literacy is considerably less for the largely phonetic Latin-based script compared to the several years necessary to master the full range of Chinese characters, the adoption of the Vietnamese alphabet also facilitated widespread literacy among Vietnamese speakers—whereas a majority of Vietnamese in Vietnam could not read or write prior to the 20th century, the population is now almost universally literate.