Romaji

In Japanese, rōmaji (Japanese: ローマ字 "Roman characters") broadly refers to the Roman alphabet.

In English, the word is usually used to refer specifically to the writing of the Japanese language in Roman characters as opposed to the usual mix of kanji and kana.

Japanese may be written in rōmaji for many reasons: street signs for visiting foreigners; transcription of personal, company, or place names to be used in another language context; dictionaries and textbooks for learners of the language; or even simply for typographic emphasis.

There are a number of different romanization systems in use: the four main ones are Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki (Cabinet order or ISO 3602), Nihon-shiki (ISO 3602 Strict) and JSL. Hepburn is the most widely accepted method outside Japan, and is used on Japanese road signs and passports. The Japanese government, however, officially sanctions Kunrei for use in education.

See also: Cyrillization of Japanese Wikipedia:Manual of Style for Japan-related articles

Table of contents

1 Advantages of each romanization system 2 Example words written in each romanization system 3 Differences between romanization systems

Advantages of each romanization system

• Hepburn follows English phonology and so gives the best indication to English speakers of how a word is pronounced in Japanese. It is used by Wikipedia.
• Nihon-shiki follows Japanese kana spelling and so is easiest for Japanese speakers to compose and interpret. It has also been known as ISO 3602 Strict form.
• Kunrei-shiki is a modified Nihon-shiki with a touch of Hepburn; it is the official romanization system of the Japanese government and is taught in Japanese schools. It has been standardized as ISO 3602.
• JSL has a system of indicating pitch.

Differences between romanization systems