Hepburn romanization

In 1867, American Presbyterian missionary doctor James Curtis Hepburn published the first Japanese–English dictionary, in which he introduced a new system for the romanization of Japanese into Latin script.[2] He published a second edition in 1872 and a third edition in 1886, which introduced minor changes.[3] The third edition's system had been adopted in the previous year by the Rōmaji-kai (羅馬字会, "Romanization Club"), a group of Japanese and foreign scholars who promoted a replacement of the Japanese script with a romanized system.[4]

Hepburn romanization, loosely based on the conventions of English orthography (spelling), stood in opposition to Nihon-shiki romanization, which had been developed in Japan in 1881 as a script replacement.[4] Compared to Hepburn, Nihon-shiki is more systematic in its representation of the Japanese syllabary (kana), as each symbol corresponds to a phoneme.[5] However, the notation requires further explanation for accurate pronunciation by non-Japanese speakers: for example, the syllables [ɕi] and [tɕa], which are written as shi and cha in Hepburn, are rendered as si and tya in Nihon-shiki.[4] After Nihon-shiki was presented to the Rōmaji-kai in 1886, a dispute began between the supporters of the two systems, which resulted in a standstill and an eventual halt to the organization's activities in 1892.[6]

After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the two factions resurfaced as the Rōmaji Hirome-kai (ローマ字ひろめ会, "Society for the Spread of Romanization"), which supported Hepburn's style, and the Nihon no Rōmaji-sha (日本のローマ字社, "Romanization Society of Japan"), which supported Nihon-shiki.[6] In 1908, Hepburn was revised by educator Kanō Jigorō and others of the Rōmaji Hirome-kai, which began calling it the Shūsei Hebon-shiki (修正ヘボン式, "modified Hepburn system") or Hyōjun-shiki (標準式, "standard system").[4]

In 1930, a Special Romanization Study Commission, headed by the Minister of Education, was appointed by the government to devise a standardized form of romanization.[5] The Commission eventually decided on a slightly modified "compromise" version of Nihon-shiki, which was chosen for official use by cabinet ordinance on September 21, 1937; this system is known today as Kunrei-shiki romanization.[5] On September 3, 1945, at the beginning of the occupation of Japan after World War II, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur issued a directive mandating the use of modified Hepburn by occupation forces.[7] The directive had no legal force, however, and a revised version of Kunrei-shiki was reissued by cabinet ordinance on December 9, 1954, after the end of occupation.[8]

Although it lacks de jure status, Hepburn remains the de facto standard for some applications in Japan. As of 1977, many government organizations used Hepburn, including the Ministry of International Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires the use of Hepburn on passports, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requires its use on transport signs, including road signs and railway station signs.[9] Hepburn is also used by private organizations, including The Japan Times and the Japan Travel Bureau.[10]

American National Standard System for the Romanization of Japanese (ANSI Z39.11-1972), based on modified Hepburn, was approved in 1971 and published in 1972 by the American National Standards Institute.[11] In 1989, it was proposed for International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 3602, but was rejected in favor of Kunrei-shiki. ANSI Z39.11-1972 was deprecated as a standard in 1994.[11]

Former Japan National Railways-style board of Toyooka Station. Between the two adjacent stations, "GEMBUDŌ" follows the Hepburn romanization system, but "KOKUHU" follows the Nihon-shiki/Kunrei-shiki romanization system.

There are many variants of the Hepburn romanization. The two most common styles are as follows:

• Traditional Hepburn, as defined in various editions of Hepburn's dictionary, with the third edition (1886)[12] often considered authoritative[13] (although changes in kana usage must be accounted for). It is characterized by the rendering of syllabic n as m before the consonants b, m and p: for example, Shimbashi for 新橋.
• Modified Hepburn, also known as Revised Hepburn, in which (among other changes) the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used: Shinbashi for 新橋. The version of the system published in the third (1954) and later editions of Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary are often considered authoritative; it was adopted in 1989 by the Library of Congress as one of its ALA-LC romanizations,[11] and is the most common variant of Hepburn romanization used today.[14]

In Japan itself, there are some variants officially mandated for various uses:

• Railway Standard (鉄道掲示基準規程, Tetsudō Keiji Kijun Kitei),[15] which mostly follows Modified Hepburn, except syllabic n is rendered as in Traditional. Japan Railways and other major railways use it for station names.
• Road Sign Romaji (Hepburn) (道路標識のローマ字（ヘボン式), Dōrohyōji no rōmaji (Hebonshiki)), used for road signs, which otherwise follows Modified Hepburn closely but specifies that macrons are not to be used.[16]
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs Passport Standard (外務省旅券規定, Gaimushō Ryoken Kitei),[17] a permissive standard that renders the syllabic n as m before b, m and p. Most of the long vowels are not rendered. Moreover, this standard explicitly allows the use of "non-Hepburn romaji" (非ヘボン式ローマ字, hi-Hebon-shiki rōmaji) in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, the long vowel ō can be romanized oh, oo or ou (Satoh, Satoo or Satou for 佐藤).

Details of the variants can be found below.

The main feature of Hepburn is that its orthography is based on English phonology. More technically, when syllables that are constructed systematically according to the Japanese syllabary contain an "unstable" consonant in the modern spoken language, the orthography is changed to something that better matches the real sound as an English-speaker would pronounce it. For example, し is written shi not si. This transcription is thus only partly phonological.

Some linguists such as Harold E. Palmer, Daniel Jones and Otto Jespersen object to Hepburn since the pronunciation-based spellings can obscure the systematic origins of Japanese phonetic structures, inflections, and conjugations.[20] Since the vowel sounds in Hepburn are similar to the vowel sounds in Italian, and the consonants similar to those of many other languages, in particular English, speakers unfamiliar with Japanese will generally be more accurate when pronouncing unfamiliar words romanized in the Hepburn style compared to other systems.[1]

• Each entry contains hiragana, katakana, and Hepburn romanization, in that order.
• † — The characters in red are historical characters and are obsolete in modern Japanese.[30][31] In modern Hepburn romanization, they are often undefined.[22]
• ‡ — The characters in blue are rarely used outside of their status as a particle in modern Japanese,[23] and romanization follows the rules above.

• List of ISO romanizations

• Preface of first edition of Hepburn's original dictionary, explaining romanization
• Preface of third edition of Hepburn's original dictionary, explaining romanization