Hepburn-style romanization is used on this site as described below.
Historically there have been several approaches to Japanese romanization. The official Kunrei system follows Japanese logical structure without regard to irregularities in pronunciation. Hepburn romanization places more emphasis on representing pronunciation as accurately as is practical. With the advent of personal computing, it was necessary to develop an input method that follows spelling; thus a third style was born.
Unfortunately, many transcribers of lyrics commonly use an inconsistent mix of methods. For example, they write は as either ha or wa depending on pronunciation, but they write そう as sou regardless as to whether it is pronounced sou or soo/sō. Since the purpose of transcribed lyrics is to help listeners with pronunciation, not to teach how to spell lyrics using an input method, this site follows the Hepburn method.
| あ a | い i | う u | え e | お o | |||
| か ka | き ki | く ku | け ke | こ ko | きゃ kya | きゅ kyu | きょ kyo |
| が ga | ぎ gi | ぐ gu | げ ge | ご go | ぎゃ gya | ぎゅ gyu | ぎょ gyo |
| さ sa | し shi | す su | せ se | そ so | しゃ sha | しゅ shu | しょ sho |
| ざ za | じ ji | ず zu | ぜ ze | ぞ zo | じゃ ja | じゅ ju | じょ jo |
| た ta | ち chi | つ tsu | て te | と to | ちゃ cha | ちゅ chu | ちょ cho |
| だ da | ぢ ji | づ zu | で de | ど do | |||
| な na | に ni | ぬ nu | ね ne | の no | にゃ nya | にゅ nyu | にょ nyo |
| は ha | ひ hi | ふ fu | へ he | ほ ho | ひゃ hya | ひゅ hyu | ひょ hyo |
| ぱ pa | ぴ pi | ぷ pu | ぺ pe | ぼ po | ぴゃ pya | ぴゅ pyu | ぴょ pyo |
| ば ba | び bi | ぶ bu | べ be | ぼ bo | びゃ bya | びゅ byu | びょ byo |
| ま ma | み mi | む mu | め me | も mo | みゃ mya | みゅ myu | みょ myo |
| や ya | ゆ yu | よ yo | |||||
| ら ra | り ri | る ru | れ re | ろ ro | りゃ rya | りゅ ryu | りょ ryo |
| わ wa | を wo | ||||||
| ん n |
っ before a consonant is represented by doubling the consonant, except っち etc. is spelled -tch-, e.g., いっぱい ippai. Glottal stops are left unrepresented, e.g., あっ a.
Long (repeated) vowels are written with a macron, e.g., ああ ā, にいさん nīsan, ふう fū, ねえ nē, とう tō, とお tō, except for occasional words traditionally spelled otherwise, e.g., いいえ iie, and where one part of the long vowel belongs to the stem of an inflected word and the other to the inflection itself, e.g., 吸う suu, おしい oshii, 行こう ikō, おおい ōi.
ん is written n' if followed by a vowel or y to avoid confusion, e.g., 単位 tan'i, 谷 tani.
Particles は, へ and を are written wa, e and o respectively as pronounced, though を may be written wo if the "w" is clearly pronounced.
Constructions for rendering irregular or foreign sounds such as ティ ti and トゥ tu, and obsolete usage such as ゐ (w)i and ぢゃ ja are rendered according to their pronunciation as called for.
Verb/adjective suffixes that would be regarded as inflections from a European language perspective are rendered as a single word with the parent verb/adjective, e.g., あげられる agerareru, おいしそう oishisō.
Compound words and numbers with a counter are written as a single word, e.g., 歌い続ける utaitsuzukeru, 抱きしめ合う dakishimeau, 白黒 shirokuro, 三度 sando, but hyphens are used for uncommon or unusual compounds. Honorific suffixes are hyphenated if attached to a word with which they are not customarily used or to a name, but not for words commonly used with the suffix, e.g., 野良猫さん noraneko-san, 山田さん Yamada-san, おばあさん obāsan. Hyphens may be used to make long numbers readable, e.g, 345 sanbyaku-yonjū-go.
Elision/contraction is marked where practical with an apostrophe as an aid to the reader's comprehension, e.g., してる shite'ru.
Punctuation marks only appear in Rōmaji lyrics if they occur in the original lyrics.
Since Japanese don't usually put spaces between words, it's often unclear where word divisions should be, even after consulting a dictionary. Therefore some mistakes and inconsistencies in word divisions are likely to occur.
Last modified 28 August 2019／最終更新日2019年08月28日 ♥ Home／ホームページ ♥ License／ライセンス ♥ Contact／コンタクト ♥ Translation／翻訳について ♥ Rōmaji／ローマ字について