This book gives true characters of Japanese speech sounds in reference to European speech sounds. When it was first published in 1931, it was the first book of its kind. There are only 5 Japanese vowel elements as opposed to 18 in English, 13 in French and 8 in German. There are 15 Japanese consonants, 26 in English, 22 in French & 23 in German. Because of the lesser number of elements, it follows that the wider range in vowels and consonants is heard by Japanese ears, so this volume gives average sounds uttered by Japanese in the twentieth century in relation to the English sounds.

Japan adopted the practice of using year names of "Nengoh" during 645 A D (the first year of Taikwa). Since then the accession of a new emperor, with the exception of a few, has been marked with a new year title, exactly as has been the custom in China. During the reign of some of the emperors, as many as six new titles have been adopted. Ambiguities have often occurred in computation of time, due to frequent changes of year titles. Changes may take place at any time of the year, and from the time of the change on till the end of that year, no matter how short, it is called the first year...