Japanese has a long history of borrowing words from other languages. Since the Chinese character system gave Japanese a writing system (as Japanese had no known systems of writing beforehand), the Japanese naturally borrowed many Chinese words into their language. However, the Japanese only borrowed words from other Asian languages until the Portuguese and the Dutch came to Japan during the 16th century. Since the Portuguese and the Dutch traded many different goods with the Japanese at this time, the Japanese naturally included many Portuguese and Dutch words into their own language, including "karuta" (ateji: 加留多 or 歌留多, hiragana: かるた, katakana: カルタ) from the Portuguese "carta" meaning "letter", "tempura" (ateji: 天麩羅 or 天婦羅, ateji and hiragana [most common form]: 天ぷら, hiragana: てんぷら, katakana: テンプラ), from the Portuguese "tempora" meaning "temperance", as Catholics would not eat red meat during Lent, and "tabako" (kanji: 煙草, hiragana: たばこ, katakana: タバコ) from the Portuguese "tabaco" meaning "tobacco". While these terms used to be written mostly in ateji (and they still can be), they are now mostly written only in hiragana or katakana.