Hepburn-Style Romaji Closer to Becoming Standardized in Japan as Govt Agency Finalizes Draft Proposal Adopting the Style

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:48 JST, June 20, 2025

The Cultural Affairs Agency has finalized a draft proposal to adopt the Hepburn style as the unified standard of romaji, or romanized Japanese, primarily due its closer resemblance to English pronunciation.

The proposal was to be presented on Friday to a subcommittee of the agency’s Council for Cultural Affairs.

The council is expected to submit its official recommendation to the minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology as early as this autumn.

The 1954 Cabinet announcement, which primarily adopted the “kunrei” style of romaji, is set to be amended for the first time in nearly 70 years. Some Japanese letters have different romanizations, such as “si” and “hu” in the kunrei style, which are written as “shi” and “fu” in the Hepburn style.

Currently, schools primarily teach the kunrei style in accordance with the existing Cabinet announcement. However, the Hepburn style is widely used in society.

The council began reviewing the Cabinet announcement in autumn 2022 with the aim of aligning romanization with what is common in society.

The draft proposal explicitly states that while it emphasizes a unified writing style as much as possible, “spellings that have been used for many years by individuals and organizations will be respected and immediate changes will not be required.”