🔤 Romaji Converter (Hepburn / Kunrei / Nihon)

Romaji (ローマ字, "Roman letters") is the representation of Japanese sounds using the Latin alphabet. It is how Japanese words appear in English-language news, passports, train stations, and keyboards. There is no single official system - instead three major romanization standards coexist, and they disagree on a handful of sounds.

The Hepburn system (hebon-shiki), designed by James Curtis Hepburn in 1886, is the most familiar to English speakers because it matches English spelling - shi, tsu, fu, ji. The Kunrei-shiki (訓令式, "Cabinet Order system") is the official system taught in Japanese schools and used by the government, with a more regular spelling - si, tu, hu, zi. The Nihon-shiki (日本式) is the strict one-kana-one-letter system that underpins Kunrei and is favoured by linguists for its one-to-one reversibility.

This romaji converter outputs all three systems side by side so you can compare them. It is useful for students who must follow a specific textbook, for translators aligning with a publisher style guide, and for anyone filling out a passport (which uses Hepburn). If you also need to flip between hiragana and katakana, use the kana converter; for readings of kanji, try the kanji reading lookup.

Refer to the table below for the key sounds where the three systems diverge:

The converter stores a lookup table that maps every kana to its romaji string in each of the three systems. It scans the input left to right, first trying to match digraphs (two-kana sequences like きゃ kya, しゃ sha/sya) before falling back to single kana. Voiced and semi-voiced marks (゛ ゜) are bundled with the base kana during the lookup. Particles は and へ are handled as standard syllables unless you flag them; the long-vowel mark ー repeats the previous vowel (コーヒー → kōhī in Hepburn with macrons).

The table below shows how the three systems handle long vowels and the particle は:

Kanji cannot be converted directly because each kanji has multiple readings - to romanise kanji text you would first need its furigana, which the furigana generator can produce for common words. To count letters in the romaji output, drop it into the Japanese character counter.

1. Paste kana text (hiragana or katakana) into the input box.
2. Select a romanization system - Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki, or Nihon-shiki.
3. Click Convert to see the romaji output instantly.
4. Compare all three systems side by side if you are unsure which to use.
5. Copy the result and paste it wherever you need Latin letters.

Can it convert kanji to romaji?

Not directly. Kanji have multiple possible readings, so romanising them requires furigana first. Generate furigana for common words, then run the kana through this converter.

Which system should I use for a passport?

Use Hepburn. The Japanese passport office and almost all English-language dictionaries and signage use Hepburn romanization, so it matches what readers expect.

Why do し and ち come out as "si" and "ti" in Kunrei?

Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki follow a strict one-kana-one-consonant rule for regularity and reversibility, whereas Hepburn uses "shi" and "chi" to match English pronunciation. Neither is wrong - they reflect different priorities.

How is the long-vowel mark ー handled?

The ー mark repeats the preceding vowel in all three systems. In Hepburn a long o may also be written with a macron (ō), but the tool follows the kana you actually typed.

Does it handle small kana like ゃ ゅ ょ and っ?

Yes. Small y-glides (ゃ ゅ ょ) combine with the preceding kana into digraphs like kya, pyo; the small っ doubles the following consonant (がっこう → gakkō).

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. All conversion runs locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, so you can safely paste private or draft text.

For passports, visa forms, and most English-language publications, use Hepburn - it is what the Japanese government uses for passports and what most dictionaries adopt. For academic linguistics or when you need the romaji to round-trip back to kana perfectly, choose Nihon-shiki. For Japanese schoolwork and government documents, Kunrei-shiki is the official standard. Watch out for the syllabic n (ん) before a vowel or y: shinai (し+ない) and shin-ai (しん+あい) are different words, so the apostrophe matters. If you are romanising for a database key, pick the system that avoids diacritics (macrons, circumflexes) to keep ASCII sorting clean. To hear how each kana reads first, check the kanji reading lookup.