Is it necessary to be able to write kanji?
I came across that question and found myself lost in thought.
(I am neither an elementary school teacher nor a government official from the Ministry of Education. Sorry.)
Kanji... emotionally, I can't bring myself to say 'it's fine if you can't write them.'
But, for the life of me, I cannot find a 'reason why one must be able to write them.'
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First, there is a premise I want to clarify.
That is, the skills related to kanji are not just one thing.
Broadly speaking, I think there are these three:
・Reading (seeing and understanding)
・Using (selecting according to meaning and context)
・Writing (reproducing without looking at anything)
These three are often lumped together, but they should actually be completely different skills.
And in many cases,
the difficulty increases in the order of
'Reading > Using > Writing'.
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What I often saw in this discussion were opinions like,
'If you can't write kanji, you can't handle language accurately'
'The resolution of your thinking drops.'
I really understand part of this.
Certainly, if you don't know the difference between words like 'will' (ishi) and 'intention' (ishi),
your thoughts can become vague.
But...
Is 'being able to write' really necessary for that?
For example, when we write text on our smartphones or computers,
we choose the appropriate kanji from the conversion candidates.
What is needed at this time is
'understanding the difference in meaning' and
'being able to choose words that fit the context',
not 'being able to write them accurately by hand'.
In other words,
what increases the resolution of thinking is
not the 'ability to write kanji' itself,
but rather the 'ability to distinguish and use words appropriately,' I think.
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On the other hand, I think there is meaning in 'writing' itself.
There is certainly a feeling that moving your hand to write makes things easier to remember,
or helps organize your thoughts.
But if you think about this carefully,
hiragana would do,
and typing can also substitute for it to some extent.
The act of 'writing' and
'accurately reproducing kanji'
feel similar, yet slightly different.
---
Thinking this far, I still cannot find
the necessity for people in Japan's future to 'become able to write (by hand) kanji'.
At the very least, couldn't it be said that it is not an 'essential skill'?
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However, apart from necessity, something catches me on an emotional level.
...Kanji are cool, aren't they lol
(*This is a personal opinion)I grew up in a relatively multinational environment and lived abroad.
At that time, when I was requested to 'write love in kanji!' and did so,
people were moved, saying 'How beautiful!', and
it felt pretty good lol
(When you live in a non-kanji culture, you start to feel an indescribable, chuunibyou-like sense of superiority about being able to write kanji lol)
Writing kanji feels somewhat similar to that.
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Therefore, if asked, 'Is there a necessity to become able to write kanji by hand?', I think 'no'.
But apart from that,
I do think it wouldn't be bad to have an opportunity to encounter the culture of writing beautiful kanji at least once.
Just like doing karate or kendo in PE class,
a modest point of contact, like experiencing calligraphy (kakizome) once in your life, would be fine.
I think that would be enough.
[Postscript]
I learned about this discussion from Maki-san's article!
Everyone in the comments section is very passionate, and it's worth reading 🤭