Kunrei-shiki

Kunrei-shiki is a system for romanizing Japanese, meaning it converts Japanese characters into the Latin alphabet. It follows a standardized set of rules that align closely with the Japanese syllabary, making it more systematic than other methods. Kunrei-shiki is often used officially in Japan’s education and government. It simplifies pronunciation and spelling consistency for learners and linguists, maintaining a direct correspondence between Japanese sounds and Roman letters. Unlike the more common Hepburn system, Kunrei-shiki emphasizes a method grounded in the Japanese language’s phonetic structure, which helps with accurate pronunciation and understanding among speakers familiar with Japanese.