Romaji converter
Paste Japanese kana to read it in Roman letters, or type romaji to get kana. Kana to romaji uses the Hepburn system. Kanji are not converted, since reading kanji needs a dictionary.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Choose the direction.
- Paste or type the text.
- Copy the result. Turn on macrons if you want ō and ū instead of ou and uu.
How it works
Kana to romaji: katakana is first shifted to hiragana, then two-kana combinations like きょ are looked up before single kana. The small っ doubles the next consonant (matcha for まっちゃ). Romaji to kana: the longest matching syllable is taken at each step, a doubled consonant becomes っ and a lone n becomes ん.
Worked example
がっこう becomes gakkou, or gakkō with macrons turned on. ラーメン becomes raamen, or rāmen with macrons. こんにちは becomes konnichiha, because the tool does not know that the greeting’s は is pronounced wa.
Tips
Spell Japanese names the way the receiving institution expects: passports use a simplified Hepburn without macrons. This tool is for study and quick transliteration.
Frequently asked questions
Which romanization system is used?
Hepburn: し is shi, ち is chi, つ is tsu, ふ is fu, じ is ji. When typing romaji you can also use Nihon-shiki and IME spellings such as si, ti, tu, hu and zi.
How are long vowels written?
By default as the kana are spelled, for example ou and uu, and ー in katakana repeats the vowel before it (raamen). With macrons turned on, aa, uu, oo and ou become ā, ū and ō. Typed macrons such as tōkyō are understood going the other way.
Why is は read as "ha" and not "wa"?
The particle は is pronounced wa, but the tool works character by character and cannot tell a particle from a word. The same applies to へ (e) and を, which is always written o. Edit those by hand.
What about ん?
It is written n. Before a vowel or y an apostrophe is added (hon'ya) so it cannot be read as the next syllable. Typing n' gives ん in the other direction.
Are kanji converted?
No. Kanji and other characters are left as they are. Use a dictionary or IME to get readings first.