[2] In addition, languages such as Orok, Evenki and Nivkh spoken in formerly Japanese controlled southern Sakhalin are becoming more and more endangered.

After the Soviet Union took control of the region, speakers of these languages and their descendants migrated to mainland Japan and still exist in small numbers.

Chinese characters were adopted and records of spoken language were made in Japan.

[citation needed] Records show that the Orok language was spoken during the latter part of the Edo period in Hokkaidō,[dubious – discuss] Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands;[dubious – discuss] however, there are only a few speakers still in existence.

[citation needed] Since the Middle Ages, owing to visits from Europeans, Japanese has adopted a number of foreign words.