Romaji to Hiragana & Katakana Converter
Convert romaji to hiragana or katakana — and kana back to Hepburn romaji
How it works
Type romaji and it is converted to kana exactly as a Japanese IME would: Hepburn (shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji), Kunrei (si, ti, tu, hu, zi) and Nihon-shiki spellings all work, doubled consonants become っ (kitte → きって, matcha → まっちゃ), n before a consonant, nn or n' become ん (kanji → かんじ, shin'ya → しんや), and long vowels can be written with macrons, doubled letters or a hyphen (Tōkyō, toukyou, to-kyo-). Standalone wa, e and o are treated as the particles は, へ and を. Small kana use the x or l prefix (xtsu → っ, xa → ぁ), and in katakana mode ti/di become ティ/ディ for loanwords. Kana → Romaji produces modified Hepburn with macrons (とうきょう → tōkyō, しんや → shin'ya) or wāpuro style spelled out as you would type it. Kanji and other characters pass through unchanged.
Questions
Which romaji systems are accepted?
Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki, mixed freely — shi/si, chi/ti, tsu/tu, fu/hu, ji/zi/di, sha/sya, ja/jya/zya all produce the same kana, the same as typing into a Japanese IME.
How do I type ん, っ and small kana?
ん: nn, n' or just n before a consonant (kanji, shinbun). っ: double the following consonant (kitte, matcha) or type xtsu/ltu. Small vowels and ゃゅょ: prefix with x or l (xa → ぁ, xyu → ゅ).
How are long vowels handled?
Macrons or circumflexes (ō, ô), doubled vowels (ou, oo, uu) and a hyphen (ko-hi-) all work. In hiragana ō becomes おう and ē becomes ええ; in katakana every long vowel becomes ー. Converting kana back to Hepburn merges おう/おお/うう/ああ/ええ into macrons, while いい and えい are kept as ii and ei.
Why did “wa” become は?
Hepburn writes the particles は, へ and を as wa, e and o. A standalone wa, e or o is treated as a particle (watashi wa → わたし は); type ha or wo to get the literal kana. The greetings konnichiwa and konbanwa are also spelled with は.
Can it convert kanji to romaji?
No. Reading kanji needs a dictionary and context (生 alone has a dozen readings), which is beyond a rule-based converter. Kanji pass through unchanged; paste hiragana or katakana (furigana) for a full romaji reading.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The conversion tables run entirely in your browser.