Romanization of Japanese terms

Japan Harvest uses rōmaji according to its own simplified version of the modified Hepburn system. In compiling this style guide we’ve consulted the Japan Style Sheet published by the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators (Tokyo, Japan) 2018, 3rd edition, and the Wikipedia style guide for Japan-related articles in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Japan-related_articles

1. Apostrophes and hyphens

Apostrophe: Japan Harvest avoids the use of an apostrophe to indicate separate Japanese syllables.

e.g. Shinetsu, not Shin’etsu (信越); shinyō, not shin’yō (信用)

Hyphen: use sparingly

e.g. Meiji jidai-shi (or jidaishi) no shinkenkyu
e.g. Shinjuku-ku (or Shinjukuku) no meisho.”

2. Macrons

Proper nouns

Macrons over long vowels are helpful to show correct pronunciation when using rōmaji (see below—Vowels, long). However, with romanized spellings of Japanese proper nouns, Japan Harvest defers to their preferred English renderings as displayed on official municipality, university, or publisher’s websites, etc.

Many municipality names are found on travel websites, however, a municipality page’s spelling takes priority. In many cases you can just search for an official city, university, or publisher’s website, etc. and immediately determine what they have decided the spelling of their name is in romaji. This spelling may or may not indicate the presence of a long vowel.

For example, see the following site for Oita.
https://www.oishiimati-oita.jp/en/

For a few additional examples, do not use a macron with: Kodansha, Doshisha University, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Kyushu, Honshu, Hokkaido, Ryukyu Islands, Bonin Islands, Iwo Jima, etc.

Other words

Japanese terms should be romanized according to common usage in English language. Japan Harvest uses the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary as our reference. If a word with long vowels is not in the MWD, then we render it according to the following:

Katakana — for loanwords with long vowels [indicated by 長音符 chōonpu (ー)] use macrons with all five vowels (ā, ī, ū, ē, ō).

Hiragana — see the below romanization guide. For detailed discussion and examples, see the Wikipedia article on Hepburn Romanization under Long Vowels. The chart below summarizes key guidance from the Wikipedia article:

Romanization guide for long vowel sounds (when to use a macron and when to use double consonants)

Vowel sound	a + a	i + i	u + u	e + e	e + i	o + o	o + u
For a simple long vowel	お婆さん おばあさん obāsan	美味しい おいしい oishii	数学 すうがく sūgaku	お姉さん おねえさん onēsan	学生 がくせい gakusei	氷 こおり kōri	学校 がっこう gakkō
For a verb in plain form			食う くう kuu				迷う まよう mayou
When there is a word-border			湖 みずうみ mizuumi	濡れ縁 ぬれえん nureen		小躍り こおどり koodori	子馬 こうま kouma
With a long vowel + word border			憂鬱 ゆううつ yūutsu

3. Names

Japanese spellings 

When both Japanese script (kanji/kana) and romaji pronunciation is included in the text, write according to the following example: Mount Fuji (富士山 Fuji-san)

Note: In running text, do not italicize proper nouns, even when using transliterations.

Suffixes

Hyphens are used to set off honorific suffixes in personal names. e.g. Shimada-san, Kaori-chan, Tarō-kun

For status- or position-identifying suffixes, treat the term as a separate, capitalized word. e.g. Kawasaki Buchō, Tanaka Sensei, Amano Senpai

4. Other hiragana/katakana characters

Particles は, へ, and を: write wa, e, and o respectively.

Sokuon (“chiisai tsu”) っ: written as t before ch (i.e., こっち kotchi, not kocchi).

Titles, transliterated: Particles such as (but not limited to) wa (は), e (へ), o (を), ga (が), and yo (よ) should not be capitalized (i.e., Otoko wa Tsurai yo, not Otoko wa tsurai yo nor Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo).

N, (syllabic) ん

When romanizing the syllabic ん, either n or m before b, m, or p is acceptable. Respect accepted variants. Using n is more consistent with dictionary practice.

We spell クリスチャン新聞 as Christian Shimbun as a convention in Japan Harvest.

Japan Harvest avoids the use of an apostrophe to denote a syllabic n when it could be confused with na, ni, nu, ne, or no. (See Apostrophe earlier on this page.)