Guide
Typing Japanese kana from romaji, and reading kana as romaji
Japanese is written with three scripts: hiragana for grammar and native words, katakana for loanwords and emphasis, and kanji for meaning. Learners often need to write kana before they have set up a Japanese keyboard, or want to check how a word they read in romaji is written. This tool converts romaji to hiragana or katakana as you type, and turns kana back into romaji.
How to type romaji
Write words as you would in a textbook using Hepburn romaji: shi, chi, tsu and fu; kya, sho and ja for combined sounds. Common alternative spellings such as si, ti, tu and hu work too. Double a consonant for the small っ that marks a pause: kitte gives きって, and before ch type cch, so maccha gives まっちゃ. For ん before a vowel or y, type n followed by an apostrophe, so kin’en gives きんえん while kinen gives きねん; a final n becomes ん on its own. Punctuation is converted to Japanese forms, so a full stop becomes 。.
Hiragana or katakana
Choose hiragana for Japanese words and katakana for loanwords and foreign names. With “Write UPPERCASE words in katakana” on, you can mix both in one line, the convention many input methods use: “watashi no namae wa ANNA desu” gives わたしのなまえはアンナです. In katakana, type a hyphen for the long-vowel bar ー: ko-hi- gives コーヒー, while koohii gives コオヒイ, the way long vowels are spelled in hiragana.
Kana back to romaji
Paste hiragana or katakana and choose “Kana → romaji” to read it in Hepburn-style romaji, with long vowels written as double letters (トーキョー becomes tookyoo). It is a handy check when you are learning to read, or when you need a romaji version of a Japanese name or title. Kanji in the text are left as they are, because their reading depends on the word.
Why there are no kanji
Turning kana into kanji requires a dictionary and context: かみ can be 紙 (paper), 神 (god) or 髪 (hair). The Japanese input method built into every phone and computer does this, showing candidates as you type. Use this tool for kana practice and reading, and your device’s Japanese keyboard when you need kanji.
The kana chart
The chart lists the basic syllables and their voiced forms in hiragana and katakana with their romaji, ordered like the traditional gojūon table: a i u e o, ka ki ku ke ko and so on. It is useful for revision or to check a single character.
Private
The converter library loads with the page and runs in your browser; your text is not uploaded.
A worked example
Type “watashi no namae wa ANNA desu.” with hiragana selected and the uppercase option on. The result is わたし の なまえ わ アンナ です。, with ANNA in katakana because it was typed in capitals. Note that the particle wa is written わ here, because the converter follows the sounds you type; in standard spelling the topic particle is written は, so type ha for it. Switching to “Kana → romaji” and pasting the result gives the romaji back.
Related tools
Convert full-width and half-width katakana with the Full-Width ⇄ Half-Width Converter, make vocabulary cards with Flashcards, or hear Japanese read aloud with Text to Speech.
Checked against the current version of the Romaji to Hiragana & Katakana on .