The Japanese writing system consists of three main scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana is a phonetic script used for native Japanese words and grammatical elements, while katakana is used primarily for foreign words and names. Kanji are characters borrowed from Chinese that represent whole words or concepts and can have multiple readings. These scripts are often used together in writing. For example, a sentence may start with hiragana for grammatical particles, include kanji for nouns, and use katakana for borrowed terms. This combination allows for rich expression and clarity in the Japanese language.