Japanese aircraft serial numbers

[Naharaht]

In photographs of Japanese aircraft the pictures show serial numbers written on the tail using Western numerals and even letters. Does anyone know why they were not written in Japanes script, please?

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

Couldn't find anything yet but came across this.

93550

Found this link for decals, not sure if they can be got in 1/200.

http://www.aviaeology.com/ijn-aircraft-tail-codes.html

More tail markings.
93551
93552
93553
93554

[Doug]

Very intersting and useful, thanks Neil.

[csadn]

In photographs of Japanese aircraft the pictures show serial numbers written on the tail using Western numerals and even letters. Does anyone know why they were not written in Japanes script, please?

In some early-war and late-war cases, kana were used; in mid-war, tho', Western characters were used.

As to why: I suspect, but cannot prove, it was a result of the difficulty of quickly reading kana on a small, fast-moving object; Arabic numerals and Roman letters are far easier to read at speed and distance.

[mik]

Japanese has (I think) more letters in their alphabet and many are quite similar at least to us. I believe Japanese use european keyboards on computers for the same reason.
mik the stick