I recently encountered a new term that's a real mouthful: IT依存性漢字健忘症 (IT izonsei kanji kenbōshō, kanji amnesia due to dependence on information technology). The word acknowledges that the proliferation of word processors has weakened people's ability to recall both individual kanji characters and compound words.
This has been a hot topic lately, thanks to Prime Minister Taro Aso's occasional gaffes at misreading kanji during deliberations in the national Diet, which has resulted in Aso being singled out as a dysfunctional speaker of his own language.
This may not be entirely fair to Mr. Aso. In a recent survey in one of the vernacular newspapers, 85 percent of respondents conceded their ability to read and write kanji had declined.
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