Hepburn romanization facts for kids

Hepburn romanization (Japanese: ヘボン式ローマ字, Hepburn: Hebon-shiki Rōmaji, 'Hepburn-type Roman letters') is a special way to write Japanese words using the Latin alphabet. This is the alphabet we use for English and many other languages. It helps people who don't speak Japanese to read and say Japanese words more easily.

Many people outside of Japan use Hepburn romanization. It helps them learn how to spell Japanese words. It also makes it easier to find places in Japan or understand Japanese names.

What is Romanization?

Romanization is like translating sounds into a different writing system. Imagine you hear a Japanese word. Romanization helps you write that word using the letters you already know. This makes it simpler for people to understand Japanese words without learning the Japanese writing systems.

Japanese has three main writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. These are very different from the Latin alphabet. Romanization acts as a bridge. It connects these Japanese writing systems to the Latin alphabet.

Who Created Hepburn Romanization?

Hepburn romanization was created by James Curtis Hepburn. He was an American doctor and missionary. Dr. Hepburn lived in Japan in the 1800s. He wanted to help people from Western countries understand Japanese better.

He created his system to make Japanese sounds easy for English speakers to pronounce. This is why it became very popular. It is still widely used today around the world.

How is it Used?

You can see Hepburn romanization in many places. It is often used on train station signs in Japan. It also appears in textbooks for learning Japanese. Many dictionaries use it to show how Japanese words are pronounced.

For example, the Japanese word for "thank you" is "arigatou." In Hepburn romanization, it is written as arigatō. This helps you know how to say it. Another example is the famous mountain, Mount Fuji. In Japanese, it's written as 富士山. But in Hepburn, it's Fujisan.

Different Romanization Systems

While Hepburn is very common, it's not the only way to romanize Japanese. There are other systems too. One is called Nihon-shiki romanization. Another is Kunrei-shiki romanization. These systems are sometimes used in Japan for different purposes.

The main difference is how they write certain sounds. Hepburn focuses on how English speakers would say the words. The other systems are more about the exact sounds in Japanese. This means a word might look a little different depending on the system used.

For example, the word for "tea" in Japanese is ちゃ (cha).

• In Hepburn, it's written as cha.
• In Nihon-shiki, it's written as tya.

This shows how the same Japanese sound can be written differently. But Hepburn is usually the easiest for people learning Japanese from English-speaking countries.

Images for kids

• 

  James Curtis Hepburn, the person who created Hepburn romanization.

• 

  Former Japan National Railways sign at Toyooka Station. You can see two station names here. "GEMBUDŌ" uses the Hepburn system. But "KOKUHU" uses the Nihon-shiki or Kunrei-shiki romanization system.

See also

A robot friend!

• In Spanish: Romanización Hepburn para niños