Rômazi Aiueo

What is this site?

Rômazi Aiueo is the website for the purpose of understanding and dissemination of romanized Japanese (romaji). It is an effort that let Japanese people learn the basics of romaji and use it more widely.

Romaji is a basic knowledge of the Japanese language taught at elementary school. However, few Japanese can write romaji correctly. Many foreigners have noticed that the spelling of romaji written by the Japanese is not consistent. The reason for this is that Japanese people do not understand how to write romaji correctly and often write them incorrectly. You may be surprised to learn that the Japanese government and companies, for political or economic reasons, deliberately ignore the official rules and use writing styles that are not only academically incorrect but also undesirable in international relations. Even more troubling, many of the explanations of romaji found on the Internet are of poor quality, and these spread misunderstandings.

In the age of the Internet, the fact that Japanese people cannot write Japanese correctly has become known throughout the world, making foreigners wonder why. This is internationally embarrassing. This situation should be changed. That is the primary purpose of this site, which is basically designed for Japanese people. However, there are many people in Japan who want to imitate foreigners, and if foreigners learn and use the correct romaji, Japanese may start to imitate them. Therefore, we hope that foreigners will learn the correct romaji and spread it around the world.

Contents

Pages on the Top Menu

• はじめに: introduction (top page)
• あらまし: overview
• なりたち: history of romaji
• いろいろ: various types of romaji
• かきかた: how to write romaji
• からくり: tools
• おさらい: teaching materials
• つながり: external links

Other Pages

• Kunrei System (cabinet order)
• Hepburn System (commonly used)
• Japanese System (pre-Kunrei System)
• Portuguese System (historical)
• Person's Names
• Words and Phrases
• Poems and Stories
• Romaji Movement
• Text Editor
• Sitemap

Screen Keyboard

If you need to input hiragana/katakana, please use this keyboard.

Gallery

Some pictures picked up from the contents. What do you think of the last one?

Terminology

Following words may confuse machine translation.

JP	EN
ローマ字	1) Latin alphabet, roman letters 2) romaji notation, romanized Japanese
ラテン文字	Latin alphabet, roman letters
ローマ字表記	romaji notation, romanized Japanese
ローマ字文	romaji sentence, Japanese sentences written in roman letters
ローマ字入力	romaji input, typing method to input Japanese using roman letter keys
ローマ字論	romaji theory, that claims that Japanese should be written in roman letters
ローマ字運動	romaji movement, social movement based on romaji theory
かな文字	kana characters
かな文字表記	kana character notation
かな文字文	kana sentence, Japanese sentences written in kana characters
かな入力	kana input, typing method to input Japanese using kana character keys
かな文字論	kana theory, that claims that Japanese should be written in kana characters
かな文字運動	kana movement, social movement based on kana theory
漢字	kanji, Chinese characters
漢字仮名交じり文	kanji-kana sentence, Japanese sentences written in kanji and kana characters
「英語」	English classes in school
「国語」	Japanese classes in school
ヘボン式	Hepburn system (romanization method), by J. C. Hepburn
訓令式	Kunrei system (romanization method), cabinet order
日本式	Japanese system (romanization method), pre-Kunrei system
標準式	Standard system, a variant of Hepburn system, extended version
「英語式」	English-like system, a variant of Hepburn system
99式	99-system, a variant of Kunrei system, proposed in 1999
「姓」	family name, last name
「名」	given name, first name
◯	good, correct, yes, recommended
△	good with conditions, acceptable
✕	bad, wrong, no, prohibited