Question

How is the Japanese language written?

Answer 1

Combination of 4 writing systems:
東京　\(\color{red} {kanji}\) (imported Chinese characters for nouns, verbs, adjectives roots, names of people and places)
とうきょう　\(\color{green} {hiragana}\) (for grammatical endings, some adverbs etc.)
オウキョウ　\(\color{blue} {katakana}\) (mainly for foreign loan-words or for emphasis)
Tôkyô \(\color{grey} {romaji}\) (including western alphabet in latin script, arabic numerals...)

More detailed explanation here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system

If you look at this week's cover of the Japanese edition of Newsweek (attached file), you will find all 4 systems combined.