TL;DR The Japanese government is updating its romanization rules from the Kunrei method to the more commonly used Hepburn style. The new rules, to be announced by the Cabinet, will unify romanization tables, standardize long vowel marks, and allow for exceptions in personal and group names. While the Kunrei style will be phased out in education, it may still be used deliberately for a retro feel.
by SkyInJapan
13 comments
Kunrei wa sippai sita
>the number of people in Japan whose native language is not Japanese has spiked.
The Japanese government really loves making pointless rules like this and feeling satisfied with themselves.
They put Ohtani in the headline to make people interested in reading the article.
I love that right after “tuki” they wrote the Hepburn reading otherwise people wouldn’t be able to pronounce it.
Sibuya de tikatetu o norimasu
Thank goodness Kunrei failed. Awful representation…
Anna Tuciya appreciates the change to Hepburn 😂
Tiikawa
RIP Mt. Huzi.
Thank God. Kunrei-shiki (sorry, *siki*) only sows confusion for everyone involved.
Kunrei isn’t useful as the only people who are able to read it correctly are other Japanese speakers, which kind of defeats the point of romanisation.
Like I had a student called Kishou, but he wrote his name a Kissyou. I had to tell him that if English speakers see that, they’re going to think his name is ‘kiss you’.
‘Etic’ for the win!
It’s amusing that the article mentions the use of macrons for long vowels, but does not show a single use of said macrons. Let me guess… Their text files aren’t encoded with Unicode? The web site does look a bit more modern than the classic 1998 look though…
So they are getting rid of a system nobody needed or used anyway. Took them long enough.
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