> romaji | converter <
Convert hiragana and katakana to romaji, or romaji back to kana. Choose Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki, Nihon-shiki or passport spelling and how long vowels are written. Nothing is uploaded.
Romaji chart (basic, voiced, yoon, foreign sounds)
Each cell lists Hepburn / Kunrei / Nihon-shiki; equal spellings are shown once.
Five spelling systems
Modified Hepburn, Hepburn without macrons, Kunrei-shiki, Nihon-shiki and passport (MOFA) style, each with its own rules.
Small tsu, n and long vowels
Doubled consonants (kk, tch), n, n' and m, and long vowels as macrons (ō), circumflexes (ô), as written (ou) or omitted.
Two-way with a chart
Switch between kana to romaji and romaji to kana, accept IME-style input, and check the gojuon chart for every system.
>> technical info
How Romaji Conversion Works:
Kana is read syllable by syllable and replaced using the table of the selected system. A small tsu doubles the next consonant (tch before ch), n is written n, n' or m depending on the next letter, and the long vowel mark or vowel pairs such as ou and oo become ō. Going back, romaji is read with longest match, so Hepburn, Kunrei, Nihon-shiki and IME spellings all work.
Example:
とうきょう → tōkyō しんぶん → shimbun さとう → satō / SATO NAMBA → なんば
Why use this tool:
- >Check how a name should be spelled on a passport or form
- >Look up standard place-name spelling in Hepburn
- >Turn romaji text back into hiragana or katakana
- >Private: nothing leaves your browser
>> frequently asked questions
Q: What is the difference between Hepburn, Kunrei and Nihon-shiki?
A: Hepburn follows English-like spelling (shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji) and is used on signs and passports. Kunrei-shiki follows the kana chart (si, ti, tu, hu, zi) and is the official school standard. Nihon-shiki is the older base of Kunrei and also separates ぢ, づ, を, ゐ and ゑ as di, du, wo, wi and we.
Q: How is a name written for a Japanese passport?
A: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs bases it on Hepburn. Long vowels are not written, so 佐藤 is SATO and 大野 is ONO, though OHNO is allowed on request. ん is N, but M before B, M and P (NAMBA), and a small tsu doubles the consonant, with T before CH (MATCHA). Always confirm the spelling on your application.
Q: How is ん written before a vowel?
A: Hepburn separates it with an apostrophe, as in shin'ichi and hon'ya, to tell it apart from shi-ni-chi and ho-nya. Passport spelling has no apostrophe and writes SHINICHI. In the other direction n' is read as ん.
Q: What happens to は, へ and を when converting back?
A: Spelling cannot tell sound from particle, so ha stays は, he stays へ, wa is わ, o is お and wo is を. Type ha for the topic particle は. The long vowel ō becomes おう by default and can be switched to おお.
Q: Are kanji converted?
A: No. Readings need a dictionary, so kanji, Latin letters and digits are kept as they are and only kana are converted. Paste the hiragana reading if you want a full conversion.