It is said that writing exists only in a civilization and a civilization cannot exist without writing; probing the validity of this statement; the critical functions that writing serves during the past 5,000 years; an introduction to pictography.

Three beliefs or myths about where writing comes from and how it develops; the theories of monogenesis versus polygenesis; whether writing is only invented once or independently in locations around the world; writing systems are resistant to change.

Japanese writing is a highly complicated script; it is used by more than 100 million people daily; how and why Japanese writing takes on the complex form it has today; attempts to simplify it have had little success; not one to be abandoned.