Romanization of Japanese

Romanization of Japanese represents Japanese words and sounds with the Latin alphabet. Its systems differ in how they encode pronunciation, kana spelling, and conventions for long vowels and consonants.

Hepburn romanization: A Japanese romanization system designed to reflect pronunciation for readers familiar with English spelling. Its sound-oriented spellings are widely used for names and international communication.
Japanese input methods: Methods for entering Japanese text on keyboards and other digital devices. Roman letters commonly serve as keystrokes that are converted into kana and kanji.
Kana transcription: The representation of foreign words or sounds using Japanese kana. It adapts sounds to Japanese syllable patterns, whereas romanization uses Latin letters.
James Curtis Hepburn: An American physician and missionary who compiled a Japanese-English dictionary and developed a romanization system. His dictionary helped establish the system now called Hepburn romanization.
Kunrei-shiki romanization: A Japanese romanization system that represents kana according to a regularized, systematic scheme. Its kana-based spellings contrast with Hepburn’s pronunciation-oriented choices.
Japanese language education: The teaching and learning of Japanese as a first or additional language. Romanization can support beginners before they learn kana.
Transliteration: The conversion of text from one writing system to another using conventional character correspondences. Romanization is a specific kind of script conversion, though some systems prioritize pronunciation.
Aston's Japanese grammar: A nineteenth-century English-language grammar of Japanese by William George Aston. Aston’s work documents early English-language approaches to representing Japanese.
Nihon-shiki romanization: A Japanese romanization system that maps kana systematically, including distinctions associated with Japanese phonology. It preserves distinctions that Hepburn often merges in common spellings.
Passport romanization: The standardized Latin-letter rendering of a person's name in a passport. Japanese passport names are commonly written using a prescribed romanization convention.

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