Rômazi Aiueo

What is this site?

Rômazi Aiueo is the website aims to promote understanding and adoption of romaji, encouraging Japanese people to learn romaji and use Japanese-style romaji in as many situations as possible.

The first official rules for romaji were established in 1937. The Japanese-style romaji defined at that time was highly regarded even by foreign linguists and was adopted as an international standard (ISO 3602) in 1989. However, we rarely encounter this style of romaji. This is because the Japanese government revised its official rules in 1954 to allow the use of the English-style system, and that system has been used ever since. The government revised the official rules again in 2025, abolishing the Japanese-style system and formally elevating the English-style system. Such language policies run counter to the shared international ideals of cultural and linguistic diversity, representing a step backward in time.

Japan's mass media is not independent from the government, and scholars hesitate to speak out against policies. The information available on the internet is mostly of low quality. Therefore, the general public lacks accurate knowledge about romaji and writes romaji spellings incorrectly by imitating romaji seen on signs and advertisements. Although romaji is part of the Japanese language, Japanese people cannot write it correctly.

This is an international embarrassment and must be rectified. This site was created with that as its primary purpose.

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 kanamoji (hiragana and 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 mixture 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-style system (romanization method), pre-Kunrei system
標準式	Standard system, a variant of Hepburn system, extended version
「英語式」	English-style 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