What is Romaji?

Romaji, Romanji or ローマ字 (rōmaji), is the romanization of the Japanese written language. Although some would argue that it is only a crutch and should be avoided, romaji does have its place in your repertoire – namely being the primary method of Japanese input for word processors and computers. In fact, Japanese children learn romaji in elementary school. That said, romaji is only a representation of written Japanese, and therefore should not be used as a primary reading method when learning the language.
 

1. How to Write Romaji
2. How to Get Your Free Romaji Guidebook (2020 Edition)
3. Advantages of Learning Romaji
4. Disadvantages of Using Romaji
5. Different Systems of Romanizations
6. Related Lessons

If you want to have some quick insight, check the romaji chart below. You will get a look at Japanese syllable construction and the specifics of romaji such as letters with a bar for long vowels, or how to write double vowels.

If you’re still not familiar with Japanese writing, get your romaji sheets, showing all the characters at once. If you’re a JapanesePod101 member, you can download it for free. Click the button below!

Finally want to learn Japanese characters so that you can read Japanese without the romaji guidebook? Great! We’re giving a Kana eBook to ALL JapanesePod101 members for free. You learn to read and write Japanese – in 1 hour or less. Visit our Japanese Alphabet page to watch a free kana video, get the free kana eBook and learn the secret to learning the alphabet fast.

Romaji is useful at the very beginning because it helps you read and get started with Japanese pronunciation, even before you’ve learned the Japanese writing.

2. You can type Japanese with your mobile phone, tablet and PC.

Most Japanese devices use romaji input. If you plan on typing in Japanese, you will be using romaji, which will automatically turn into hiragana, katakana or kanji characters.

3. Lot of places in Japan, like restaurants or stations, use romaji.

You will be able to order food or navigate by yourself with romaji and a bit of Japanese vocabulary.

Starting to learn Japanese with romaji will definitely help you. The danger comes from using it for too long and it will just make your learning harder.

1. Romaji can cause the formation of bad habits or misunderstandings.

Romaji confuses spelling. For example, the romaji of 縮む, meaning “to shrink”, is chijimu, which, if put back into hiragana, can be written as ちぢむ or ちじむ. But the correct spelling is ちぢむ. The same goes for Tokyo 東京 (とうきょう), meaning “Tokyo, the capital of Japan”, that has different hiragana to romaji spelling like Tokyo, Tōkyō, Toukyou…

2. You won’t learn proper Japanese pronunciation with romaji.

Be aware that if you don’t get much speaking practice you could develop bad habits, especially for English speakers reading romaji the same way they would read English, with English rhythm and intonation. Romaji-only-courses would be disastrous when learning how to pronounce Japanese syllables in the proper way.

3. Romaji doesn’t help you read Japanese texts.

Japanese people don’t use romaji in everyday life. You won’t be able to read Japanese texts unless someone kindly turns it to romaji for you. The main use of romaji, and the reason why Japanese people learn the roman alphabet, is computing. Its tempting to stick to romaji, and many beginner textbooks are littered with it, but ultimately it will only slow you down.

If you are serious about learning Japanese, you should learn all three writing systems – hiragana, katakana and kanji.

Once you have learned and are comfortable with Japanese Kana there will be absolutely NO reason for you to romanized script. The only reason you would need to use romaji is because you haven’t yet learned the Japanese alphabets.

A lot of materials and resources start with romaji and some don’t even show any kana or kanji. If you get addicted to romaji, you will never be able to learn Japanese. Learning hiragana and katakana characters will give you the Japanese basics you need to speak, write and read most Japanese. If you want to master the Japanese language and become fluent, you must learn kana first.

There are several different systems of romaji. Arguably, the two most-often used systems are the Hepburn and Kunrei (訓令式) systems.

The Kunrei system of romaji is the system taught to Japanese children in elementary school.

There are a few variations of the Hepburn system. This site and our lesson notes use Revised Hepburn, which is the most common form of romaji used today, and is also used by the Library of Congress.