Romanization of Japanese
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Romanization of Japanese

The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language.[1] This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as r?maji (?, literally, "Roman letters"; [?o:ma(d)?i] or [?o:ma?(d)?i]). There are several different romanization systems. The three main ones are Hepburn romanization, Kunrei-shiki romanization (ISO 3602), and Nihon-shiki romanization (ISO 3602 Strict). Variants of the Hepburn system are the most widely used.

Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Chinese (kanji) and syllabic scripts (kana) that also ultimately derive from Chinese characters. R?maji may be used in any context where Japanese text is targeted at non-Japanese speakers who cannot read kanji or kana, such as for names on street signs and passports, and in dictionaries and textbooks for foreign learners of the language. It is also used to transliterate Japanese terms in text written in English (or other languages that use the Latin script) on topics related to Japan, such as linguistics, literature, history, and culture. R?maji is the most common way to input Japanese into word processors and computers, and may also be used to display Japanese on devices that do not support the display of Japanese characters.

All Japanese who have attended elementary school since World War II have been taught to read and write romanized Japanese. Therefore, almost all Japanese are able to read and write Japanese using r?maji, although it is extremely rare in Japan to use this method to write Japanese (except as an input tool on a computer or for special purposes like in some logo design), and most Japanese are more comfortable reading kanji and kana.


The earliest Japanese romanization system was based on Portuguese orthography. It was developed around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named Anjir?.[] Jesuit priests used the system in a series of printed Catholic books so that missionaries could preach and teach their converts without learning to read Japanese orthography. The most useful of these books for the study of early modern Japanese pronunciation and early attempts at romanization was the Nippo jisho, a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary written in 1603. In general, the early Portuguese system was similar to Nihon-shiki in its treatment of vowels. Some consonants were transliterated differently: for instance, the /k/ consonant was rendered, depending on context, as either c or q, and the /?/ consonant (now pronounced /h/, except before u) as f; and so Nihon no kotoba ("The language of Japan") was spelled Nifon no cotoba. The Jesuits also printed some secular books in romanized Japanese, including the first printed edition of the Japanese classic The Tale of the Heike, romanized as Feiqe no monogatari, and a collection of Aesop's Fables (romanized as Esopo no fabulas). The latter continued to be printed and read after the suppression of Christianity in Japan (Chibbett, 1977).

Following the expulsion of Christians from Japan in the late 1590s and early 17th century, r?maji fell out of use and was used sporadically in foreign texts until the mid-19th century, when Japan opened up again.[]

From the mid-19th century onward, several systems were developed, culminating in the Hepburn system, named after James Curtis Hepburn who used it in the third edition of his Japanese-English dictionary, published in 1887. The Hepburn system included representation of some sounds that have since changed. For example, Lafcadio Hearn's book Kwaidan shows the older kw- pronunciation; in modern Hepburn romanization, this would be written Kaidan (lit.'ghost tales').[]

As a replacement for the Japanese writing system

In the Meiji era (1868-1912), some Japanese scholars advocated abolishing the Japanese writing system entirely and using r?maji instead. The Nihon-shiki romanization was an outgrowth of that movement. Several Japanese texts were published entirely in r?maji during this period, but it failed to catch on. Later, in the early 20th century, some scholars devised syllabary systems with characters derived from Latin (rather like the Cherokee syllabary) that were even less popular since they were not based on any historical use of the Latin script.

Today, the use of Nihon-shiki for writing Japanese is advocated by the Oomoto sect[2] and some independent organizations.[3] During the Allied occupation of Japan, the government of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) made it official policy to romanize Japanese. However, that policy failed and a more moderate attempt at Japanese script reform followed.

Modern systems


Old sign from the JNR era at Toyooka Station shows inconsistent romanization. Although in principle Hepburn is used, Kokuhu is the kunrei-shiki form (which would be Kokufu in Hepburn).

Hepburn romanization generally follows English phonology with Romance vowels. It is an intuitive method of showing Anglophones the pronunciation of a word in Japanese. It was standardized in the United States as American National Standard System for the Romanization of Japanese (Modified Hepburn), but that status was abolished on October 6, 1994. Hepburn is the most common romanization system in use today, especially in the English-speaking world.

The Revised Hepburn system of romanization uses a macron to indicate some long vowels and an apostrophe to note the separation of easily confused phonemes (usually, syllabic n ? from a following naked vowel or semivowel). For example, the name ? is written with the kana characters ju-n-i-chi-ro-u, and romanized as Jun'ichir? in Revised Hepburn. Without the apostrophe, it would not be possible to distinguish this correct reading from the incorrect ju-ni-chi-ro-u (). This system is widely used in Japan and among foreign students and academics.


Nihon-shiki romanization, which predates the Hepburn system, was originally invented as a method for Japanese to write their own language in Latin characters, rather than to transcribe it for Westerners as Hepburn was. It follows the Japanese syllabary very strictly, with no adjustments for changes in pronunciation. It has also been standardized as ISO 3602 Strict. Also known as Nippon-shiki, rendered in the Nihon-shiki style of romanization the name is either Nihon-siki or Nippon-siki.


Kunrei-shiki romanization is a slightly modified version of Nihon-shiki which eliminates differences between the kana syllabary and modern pronunciation. For example, the characters ? and ? are pronounced identically in modern Japanese, and thus Kunrei-shiki and Hepburn ignore the difference in kana and represent the sound in the same way (zu). Nihon-shiki, on the other hand, will romanize ? as du, but ? as zu. Similarly for the pair ? and ?, they are both zi in Kunrei-shiki and ji in Hepburn, but are zi and di respectively in Nihon-shiki. See the table below for full details.

Kunrei-shiki has been standardized by the Japanese Government and the International Organisation for Standardisation as ISO 3602. Kunrei-shiki is taught to Japanese elementary school students in their fourth year of education.

Written in Kunrei-shiki, the name of the system would be rendered Kunreisiki.

Other variants

It is possible to elaborate these romanizations to enable non-native speakers to pronounce Japanese words more correctly. Typical additions include tone marks to note the Japanese pitch accent and diacritic marks to distinguish phonological changes, such as the assimilation of the moraic nasal /?/ (see Japanese phonology).


JSL is a romanization system based on Japanese phonology, designed using the linguistic principles used by linguists in designing writing systems for languages that do not have any. It is a purely phonemic system, using exactly one symbol for each phoneme, and marking the pitch accent using diacritics. It was created for Eleanor Harz Jorden's system of Japanese language teaching. Its principle is that such a system enables students to internalize the phonology of Japanese better. Since it does not have any of the other systems' advantages for non-native speakers, and the Japanese already have a writing system for their language, JSL is not widely used outside the educational environment.

Non-standard romanization

In addition to the standardized systems above, there are many variations in romanization, used either for simplification, in error or confusion between different systems, or for deliberate stylistic reasons.

Notably, the various mappings that Japanese input methods use to convert keystrokes on a Roman keyboard to kana often combine features of all of the systems; when used as plain text rather than being converted, these are usually known as w?puro r?maji. (W?puro is a blend of w?do purosess? word processor.) Unlike the standard systems, w?puro r?maji requires no characters from outside the ASCII character set.

While there may be arguments in favour of some of these variant romanizations in specific contexts, their use, especially if mixed, leads to confusion when romanized Japanese words are indexed. Note that this confusion never occurs when inputting Japanese characters with a word processor, because input Latin letters are transliterated into Japanese kana as soon as the IME processes what character is input.

Long vowels

In addition, the following three "non-Hepburn r?maji" (, hi-Hebon-shiki r?maji) methods of representing long vowels are authorized by the Japanese Foreign Ministry for use in passports.[4]

  • oh for or (Hepburn ?).
  • oo for or . This is valid JSL romanization. For Hepburn romanization, it is not a valid romanization if the long vowel belongs within a single word.
  • ou for . This is also an example of w?puro r?maji.

Example words written in each romanization system

English Japanese Kana spelling Romanization
Revised Hepburn Kunrei-shiki Nihon-shiki
Roman characters ? ? r?maji rômazi rômazi
Mount Fuji ? Fujisan Huzisan Huzisan
tea ocha otya otya
governor chiji tizi tizi
to shrink chijimu tizimu tidimu
to continue tsuzuku tuzuku tuduku

Differences among romanizations

This chart shows in full the three main systems for the romanization of Japanese: Hepburn, Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki:

Hiragana Katakana Hepburn Nihon-shiki Kunrei-shiki IPA
? ? a
? ? i
? ? u ?
? ? e
? ? o
? ? ka
? ? ki k?i
? ? ku k?
? ? ke
? ? ko
kya k?a
kyu k
kyo k?o
? ? sa
? ? shi si ?i
? ? su s?
? ? se
? ? so
sha sya ?a
shu syu
sho syo ?o
? ? ta
? ? chi ti t?i
? ? tsu tu ts?
? ? te
? ? to
cha tya t?a
chu tyu t
cho tyo t?o
? ? na
? ? ni ?i
? ? nu n?
? ? ne
? ? no
nya ?a
nyo ?o
? ? ha
? ? hi çi
? ? fu hu
? ? he
? ? ho
hya ça
hyu ç?
hyo ço
? ? ma
? ? mi m?i
? ? mu m?
? ? me
? ? mo
mya m?a
myu m
myo m?o
? ? ya ja
? ? yu j?
? ? yo jo
? ? ra ?a
? ? ri i
? ? ru
? ? re ?e
? ? ro ?o
rya a
ryu u
ryo o
? ? wa wa~?a
? ? i wi i
? ? e we e
? ? o wo o
? ? n-n'(-m) n-n' m~n~?~?
? ? ga
? ? gi g?i
? ? gu g?
? ? ge
? ? go
gya g?a
gyu g
gyo g?o
? ? za
? ? ji zi ?i~d?i
? ? zu z?
? ? ze
? ? zo
ja zya ?a~d?a
ju zyu ~d
jo zyo ?o~d?o
? ? da
? ? ji di zi ?i~d?i
? ? zu du zu z?
? ? de
? ? do
ja dya zya ?a~d?a
ju dyu zyu ~d
jo dyo zyo ?o~d?o
? ? ba
? ? bi b?i
? ? bu b?
? ? be
? ? bo
bya b?a
byu b
byo b?o
? ? pa
? ? pi p?i
? ? pu p?
? ? pe
? ? po
pya p?a
pyu p
pyo p?o
? ? vu

This chart shows the significant differences among them. Despite the International Phonetic Alphabet, the /j/ sound in ?, ?, and ? are never romanized with the letter J.

Kana Revised Hepburn Nihon-shiki Kunrei-shiki
? û
, ? ô
? shi si
sha sya
shu syu
sho syo
? ji zi
ja zya
ju zyu
jo zyo
? chi ti
? tsu tu
cha tya
chu tyu
cho tyo
? ji di zi
? zu du zu
ja dya zya
ju dyu zyu
jo dyo zyo
? fu hu
? i wi i
? e we e
? o wo o
? n, n' ( m) n n'


Japanese is written without spaces between words, and in some cases, such as compounds, it may not be completely clear where word boundaries should lie, resulting in varying romanization styles. For example, ?, meaning "to marry", and composed of the noun (kekkon, "marriage") combined with (suru, "to do"), is romanized as one word kekkonsuru by some authors but two words kekkon suru by others.

Kana without standardized forms of romanization

There is no universally accepted style of romanization for the smaller versions of the vowels and y-row kana when used outside the normal combinations (, , etc.), nor for the sokuon or small tsu kana ?/? when it is not directly followed by a consonant. Although these are usually regarded as merely phonetic marks or diacritics, they do sometimes appear on their own, such as at the end of sentences, in exclamations, or in some names. The detached sokuon, representing a final glottal stop in exclamations, is sometimes represented as an apostrophe or as t; for example, ! might be written as a'! or at!.[]

Historical romanizations

1603: Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603)
1604: Arte da Lingoa de Iapam (1604-1608)
1620: Arte Breve da Lingoa Iapoa (1620)
? ? ? ? ?
1603 a i, j, y v, u ye vo, uo
1604 i v vo
1620 y
? ? ? ? ?
1603 ca qi, qui cu, qu qe, que co qia qio, qeo qua
1604 qui que quia quio
1620 ca, ka ki cu, ku ke kia kio
? ? ? ? ?
1603 ga gui gu, gv gue go guia guiu guio gua
1604 gu
1620 ga, gha ghi gu, ghu ghe go, gho ghia ghiu ghio
? ? ? ? ?
1603 sa xi su xe so xa xu xo
? ? ? ? ?
1603 za ii, ji zu ie, ye zo ia, ja iu, ju io, jo
1604 ji ia ju jo
1620 ie iu io
? ? ? ? ?
1603 ta chi tçu te to cha chu cho
? ? ? ? ?
1603 da gi zzu de do gia giu gio
1604 dzu
? ? ? ? ?
1603 na ni nu ne no nha nhu, niu nho, neo
1604 nha nhu nho
? ? ? ? ?
1603 fa fi fu fe fo fia fiu fio, feo
1604 fio
? ? ? ? ?
1603 ba bi bu be bo bia biu bio, beo
1620 bia biu
? ? ? ? ?
1603 pa pi pu pe po pia piu pio
1604 pea peu peo
1620 pia piu pio
? ? ? ? ?
1603 ma mi mu me mo mia, mea miu, meu mio, meo
1620 mio
? ? ?
1603 ya yu yo
? ? ? ? ?
1603 ra ri ru re ro ria, rea riu rio, reo
1604 rio
1620 riu
? ? ? ?
1603 va, ua vi, ui ve, ue vo, uo via, uia, vea, uea, ya viu, veu, uiu, ueu, yu vio, veo, uio, ueo, yo
1604 va y ye vo
1603 n, m, ~ (tilde)
1604 n
1620 n, m
1603 -t, -cc-, -cch-, -cq-, -dd-, -pp-, -ss-, -tt, -xx-, -zz-
1604 -t, -cc-, -cch-, -pp-, -cq-, -ss-, -tt-, -xx-
1620 -t, -cc-, -cch-, -pp-, -ck-, -cq-, -ss-, -tt-, -xx-

Roman letter names in Japanese

The list below shows the Japanese readings of letters in Katakana, for spelling out words, or in acronyms. For example, NHK is read enu-eichi-kei (). These are the standard names, based on the British English letter names (so Z is from zed, not zee), but in specialized circumstances, names from other languages may also be used. For example, musical keys are often referred to by the German names, so that B is called b? () from German B.

  • A; ? or ei ( or )
  • B; b? ()
  • C; sh? (, sometimes pronounced s?, )
  • D; d? (, alternative pronunciation d?, )
  • E; ? ()
  • F; efu ()
  • G; j? ()
  • H; eichi or etchi ( or )
  • I; ai ()
  • J; j? or jei ( or )
  • K; k? or kei ( or )
  • L; eru ()
  • M; emu ()
  • N; enu ()
  • O; ? ()
  • P; p? ()
  • Q; ky? ()
  • R; ?ru ()
  • S; esu ()
  • T; t? (, and alternatively pronounced t?, )
  • U; y? ()
  • V; vi (, though often pronounced bui, )
  • W; dabury? ()
  • X; ekkusu (?)
  • Y; wai ()
  • Z; zetto, zeddo (, )

See also



  1. ^ Walter Crosby Eells (May 1952). "Language Reform in Japan". The Modern Language Journal. 36 (5): 210-213. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1952.tb06122.x. JSTOR 318376.
  2. ^ "Oomoto.or.jp". Oomoto.or.jp. 2000-02-07. Retrieved .
  3. ^ "Age.ne.jp". Age.ne.jp. Retrieved .
  4. ^ "()". Kanagawa Prefectural Government. Retrieved .


  • Chibbett, David (1977). The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration. Kodansha International Ltd. ISBN 0-87011-288-0.
  • Jun'ichir? Kida (, Kida Jun'ichir?) (1994). Nihongo Daihakubutsukan (?) (in Japanese). Just System (, Jasuto Shisutem). ISBN 4-88309-046-9.
  • Tadao Doi (?) (1980). H?yaku Nippo Jisho () (in Japanese). Iwanami Shoten (?).
  • Tadao Doi (?) (1955). Nihon Daibunten () (in Japanese). Sanseido ().
  • Mineo Ikegami (?) (1993). Nihongo Sh?bunten () (in Japanese). Iwanami Shoten (?).
  • Hiroshi Hino () (1993). Nihon Sh?bunten () (in Japanese). Shin-Jinbutsu-Ôrai-Sha ().

Further reading

External links

  • Media related to Romanization of Japanese at Wikimedia Commons
  • "R?maji s?dan shitsu" ? (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2018-03-06. An extensive collection of materials relating to r?maji, including standards documents and HTML versions of Hepburn's original dictionaries.
  • The r?maji conundrum by Andrew Horvat contains a discussion of the problems caused by the variety of confusing romanization systems in use in Japan today.




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