"Hello. My name is Katuo Zyuniti. I love the Tokio Giants. I work for the Mitutoyo company in Sinzuku. My wife often goes grocery shopping at the Meidiya grocery store. Last weekend, my family went for a drive around Mt. Huzi in Sizuoka in my brand new Mitubisi. Next week, we will go to Titibu to buy a Keepon robot made my Hideki Kozima."Kunrei-shiki romanization (Monbusho system) is the official romanization system of the Japanese government and has been approved by ISO. Unfortunately, Kunrei-shiki is confusing and of little use to people who are not familiar with Japanese phonology.
- Listen to the Kunrei-shiki Romaji version.
Although the Japanese education ministry and some in Japanese academia insist on using Kunrei-shiki even in the 21st century, effective and professional writers almost never use it. In fact, the standard of romanization used by the world's leading publications, most international Japanese corporations, most Japanese news publications, and even most ministries of the Japanese government is a modified version of the Hepburn style of romanization.
Why not used the official version of romanization? Because Kunrei-shiki is useless to non-Japanese who don't have a knowledge of Japanese phonology. In fact, most Japanese would have difficulty reading and understanding the paragraph at the top of this page because it is written in Kunrei-shiki romaji. Kunrei-shiki is perfect for some Japanese or non-Japanese who have a good understanding of Japanese phonology. Kunrei-shiki romaji was developed so that non-Japanese can read the names of persons, places, and things in Japan. Ironically, it doesn't work very well because the authors chose to use English letter combinations that have almost no equivalent or corresponding pronunciation in the English language. Basically, Kunrei-shiki causes miscommunication, confusion, and prohibits the smooth flow of communication. For example, the "tu" in "Katuo" reads as "kah-two-oh." Shinjuku becomes Sinzuku (seen-zoo-koo); Kojima become Kozima (koh-zee-ma); Mitsubishi becomes Mitubisi (mee-two-bee-see); and so on.
Thus said, romaji should be such that in promotes clear, concise, and quick communication regardless of the reader's knowledge of Japanese phonology. Accordingly, most Japanese, most English publications printed by Japanese publishers would never use Mitubisi, Kozima, Sinzuku, Mt. Huzi, etc., because it would cause confusion and mispronunciation for most readers.
If you intend to communicate with non-Japanese, then think less about the accuracy of converting Japanese characters into a phonologically correct version of romaji and think more about communicating effectively with your audience. If you try to communicate with your audience foremost in mind, you will convey your message much more clearly and with less distraction. What's more important? Phonologically correctiveness or quick, clear, and concise communication?
If you are an engineer--focus more on clear and concise communication and less on phonological accuracy!
"Hello. My name is Katsuo Junichi. I love the Tokyo Giants. I work for the Mitsutoyo company in Shinjuku. My wife often goes grocery shopping at the Meijiya grocery store. Last weekend, my family went for a drive around Mt. Fuji in Shizuoka in my brand new Mitsubishi. Next week, we will go to Chichibu to buy a Keepon robot made my Hideki Kojima."Download a romaji-kana conversion table here.
- Listen to the modified Hepburn Romaji version.
References:
- About Japanese Romanization by by Yayoi Koizumi
- Robots Take Center Stage at Nextfest, NPR, by Madeleine Brand and Xeni Jardin
- WIRED NEXTFEST, September 14 - 16, 2007. L.A. Convention Center/South Hall. J&K Los Angeles, CA
- Infanoid Project, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
- Kunrei-shiki Rōmaji - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Japanese romanization@Everything2.com
- Total Quality Japanese: The Romaji Conundrum
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