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This article is from the Japanese FAQ, by TANAKA Tomoyuki tanaka@cs.indiana.edu and Olaf Meeuwissen olaf@IMSL.shinshu-u.ac.jp with numerous contributions by others.

38 What is the correct way to write something in romaji? (Japanese)

There is no one correct way to write anything in romaji (see
Q2.7). As a logical consequence, romanisation flames are rather
futile. There are, at best, recommended ways.

Perhaps the closest thing to a correct way is the romanisation
scheme the Japanese government announced on December, 9, 1954.
Based on the "gojuuonjun", it uses the following kana to romaji
conversions:

     n  wa    ra   ya  ma        ha     na   ta       sa       ka   a
        -     ri       mi        hi     ni   ti /chi  si /shi  ki   i
              ru   yu  mu        hu/fu  nu   tu /tsu  su       ku   u
        -     re       me        he     ne   te       se       ke   e
        -/wo  ro   yo  mo        ho     no   to       so       ko   o
  
              rya      mya       hya    nya  tya/cha  sya/sha  kya
              ryu      myu       hyu    nyu  tyu/chu  syu/shu  kyu
              ryo      myo       hyo    nyo  tyo/cho  syo/sho  kyo
  
                            pa   ba          da       za       ga
                            pi   bi          -  /di   zi /ji   gi
                            pu   bu          -  /du   zu       gu
                            pe   be          de       ze       ge
                            po   bo          do       zo       go
  
                            pya  bya         -  /dya  zya/ja   gya
                            pyu  byu         -  /dyu  zyu/ju   gyu
                            pyo  byo         -  /dyo  zyo/jo   gyo
  
                                                               kwa
                                                               gwa

The table does not stand by itself. It comes with a couple of
rules as well, the first of which says that in principle you have
to use the romanisation that's on the left hand side of the
slash, if there is one of course. The right hand side alterna-
tive is only to be used for words with strong international con-
notations, those that are customarily romanised that way or if it
strongly improves the information content. Rather vague and
prone to abuse, but that's what it says.

The other rules are:
* To disambiguate the letter `n' in a word like `kinen', you use
a single quote if it is the romaji `n'. So `kinen' is to be
interpreted as `memorial', whereas `No smoking' is `kin'en'.
* The "sokuon" (small tsu) causes doubling of the following con-
sonant, as in `sippai'.
* The "chouon" (lengthened vowel) is represented by a caret, ^,
over the vowel. However, in case the vowel is a capital you
are at liberty to write the extra vowel, as in `Oosaka'.
* Finally, and curiously, you can capitalize all Nouns if you
please, not just proper Names and the initial Word of Sen-
tences. Sounds very German, if you ask me.

By the way, the dashes in the table indicate the fact that the
use of these kana for Japanese words is discouraged. In the
"gojuuonzu" these positions are either empty or filled with kana
from other columns.

[ed.: I believe this romanisation scheme is known as "nihon
shiki", but am not altogether sure about that. Could someone
verify this?]

If you are familiar with romanisation schemes, you may have
noticed that the above roughly encompasses the two perhaps most
famous schemes: "kunrei shiki" and "hebon shiki". The former
uses the alternatives on the left hand side of the slash, while
the later opts for the right hand side, with some minor excep-
tions for both:

* Both systems miss the entries for `dya', `dyu' and `dyo'.
* "kunrei shiki" uses `di' and `du', whereas "hebon shiki"
sticks to `ji' and `zu' for the same kana, thereby introducing
ambiguity.
* Both systems have some extra romaji covering kana in the "wa
gyou" (wa column) that have slipped into disuse, namely `wi'
(both) and `we' ("kunrei shiki") or `ye' ("hebon shiki").
"kunrei shiki" also uses `wo' instead of `o'.
* Before the voiced versions of "ha gyou" romaji, like `ba',
`pa', etc., and before "ma gyou" romaji, "hebon shiki" uses
`m' instead of `n', leading to things such as `shimbun'
instead of `shinbun'.

Both systems were invented in the 1880's. A strictly Japanese
invention, "kunrei shiki" was the official romanisation scheme
prescribed by the government in 1937. "hebon shiki" was
developed by an international group including James Hepburn and
made its claim to fame when Hepburn adopted it for the third edi-
tion of his Japanese-English dictionary in 1886. Subsequently,
his name got attached to the scheme, as in Hepburn system, and
went through some minor revisions since then. You may also find
it referred to as "hyoujun shiki" (standard form!).

Of the two, it is the least likely to be mangled in pronunciation
by non-Japanese (but still a far cry from being idiot-proof).

 

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