Japanese latinization guide

This article describes official wiki policy for latinizing Japanese words and names, as well as Japanese titles using renderings of non-Japanese words and names.

Japanese uses three writing systems in tandem:


 * kanji, symbols that represent words or concepts. all have hiragana transcriptions of their pronunciation.
 * hiragana, letters for native and nativized Japanese words.
 * katakana, letters for foreign words, foreign names, slang, onomatopeia, in emphasis, and names of wildlife.

The two letter systems are collectively known as kana and repesent syllables and moras in words and names. Only vowels and syllable-final /ɴ/ are written by themselves. Moras are syllables narrowed for pronunciation effects, and are also called "morae" or "weighted syllables". Some varieties of Japanese operate per-syllable, but not the standard.

When latinizing, always go by the kana latinization section, even when the original text contains kanji. Only mark writing system is used if it's important to distinguishing and/or requested for a specific name. In thoses cases write superscript 1, 2, and 3 in latinizations for marking kanji, hiragana, and katakana, respectively.

Kana latinization
The letters are in Japanese order by default. Kana writing is almost entirely regular, with only 2-3 words not being pronounced as they are normally written, which are listed in the notes. Kana names are simply the sound(s) represent. They can be followed by "kana" or the specific type of kana if clarity is needed.

All latinized spelling clusters can be separated with an apostrophe <'>. This is not done in all-kana writing but is key to pronunciation and applies to writing with kanji.

Katakana are often used to adapt foreign names in way that is not immediately obvious. This will be shown in a table after the letters and marks.

Marks and punctuation
Japanese has several unique marks combined with kana letters, and unique punctuation written alongside any text. They are listed below, when differing from Latin alphabet and English norms.

Pitch accent/ tones
Japanese pitch accents/ tones aren't marked in any native writing, but are mandatory for proper pronuciation. They are latinized as the following marks over the relevant vowel:


 * acute accents (´) mean pitch upticks. if a variety has tones, the acute accent goes only on pitched vowels with high tones. don't mark this on the most common word prosody type, heeban.
 * up chevrons (^) mean high tones with a pitch uptick. this mark is only used for varieties that have tones.
 * grave accents (`) mean low tones without a pitch uptick. this mark is only used for varieties that have tones.
 * down chevrons (ˇ) mean low tones with a pitch uptick. this mark is only used for varieties that have tones.

Standard Japanese doesn't use tones, and some varieties of Japanese use neither pitch accent nor tones.