Romanization

Because the Japanese language does not use the same characters as occidental languages, there is the need for a way to express Japanese pronunciation using the roman alphabet. This is called romaaji.

However, this gets complicated as there is no universal standard for the romanization of Japanese. For example, the most common system in the West is the modified Hepburn system, but the official system of the Japanese government is the Kunrei system.


Romaji table for hiragana
The Kunrei romanization is placed after the Hepburn romanization where the two differ

		a	i	u	e	o		ya	yu	yo
-		あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
k		か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko		きゃ kya	きゅ kyu	きょ kyo
	g	が ga	ぎ gi	ぐ gu	げ ge	ご go		ぎゃ gya	ぎゅ gyu	ぎょ gyo
s		さ sa	し shi/si	す su	せ se	そ so		しゃ sha/sya	しゅ shu/syu	しょ sho/syo
	z	ざ za	じ ji/zi	ず zu	ぜ ze	ぞ zo		じゃ ja/zya	じゅ ju/zyu	じょ jo/zyo
t		た ta	ち chi/ti	つ tsu/tu	て te	と to		ちゃ cha/tya	ちゅ chu/tyu	ちょ cho/tyo
	d	だ da	ぢ ji/di	づ zu/du	で de	ど do
n		な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no		にゃ nya	にゅ nyu	にょ nyo
h		は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu/hu	へ he	ほ ho		ひゃ hya	ひゅ hyu	ひょ hyo
	b	ば ba	び bi	ぶ bu	べ be	ぼ bo		びゃ bya	びゅ byu	びょ byo
	p	ぱ pa	ぴ pi	ぷ pu	ぺ pe	ぽ po		ぴゃ pya	ぴゅ pyu	ぴょ pyo
m		ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo		みゃ mya	みゅ myu	みょ myo
y		や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
r		ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro		りゃ rya	りゅ ryu	りょ ryo
w		わ wa				を (w)o
ん n