The Official Romanization of Japanese

Abstract

^T^HE first of the Rules for the Spelling of Geographical Names for British X Official Use, termed the R.G.S. II System, lays down that the spelling of every place-name in an independent country using the Latin alphabet shall be that adopted by the country. Japan has been regarded as coming under this head, as it produces official maps, etc. in Latin characters; and up till a few years ago there was little difficulty in determining the spelling of Japanese names, as one system of romanization, termed the Hepburn system, was in general use both in Japan and in this country. Divergencies from the original system may be found, notably the use of zu for the dzu of Hepburn's Dic? tionary, of ae, ie, ue for aye, iye, uye, of kyo for kio, while differences in local pronunciation may account for the interchange of k and kw, of g and ng. But these differences are slight compared with the recent innovations of the Nippon Romazikwai (Roman Letter Association of Japan). Three sheets of the International Map have so far been produced by Japan, namely Tokyo 1917, Osaka (to the west of Tokyo) 1923, and Kanazawa (to the north of Osaka) 1927. These have been published by the Land Survey Department, which has also published a map of the Japanese Empire on the scale of 1 : 2,000,000 (1926). A glance at the names on these sheets reveals spellings of a novel, not to say revolutionary, character. If they are compared with the spellings on the old Topographical Map of Japan on the scale of 1 : 1,000,000 published by the Imperial Geological Survey, which had pre? viously been the map-maker's standard for official spelling in Latin characters, such wide differences will be noticed that in some cases the names can hardly be recognized as being identical. Some examples will be given presently. It may be remarked that the Imperial Geological Survey continues to publish maps with the old spelling, which is also found in the Official Guide to Eastern Asia prepared by the Government Railways. In October of last year a letter was sent from the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names to H.E. The Japanese Ambassador (i) calling attention to these differences of spelling in official Japanese publications; (ii) enquiring if the new spelling had been sanctioned by the Government for general use or whether the system of romanization employed merely reflected the opinion of the individual official responsible in the department concerned; and (iii), if the latter were the case, emphasizing the desirability of fixing one official form of romanization, preferably the long-established form known as the Hepburn system, the abolition of which would cause great confusion in all scientific and commercial circles. After referring the matter to Tokyo, the Embassy replied in May of this year in the following terms: There are in Japan two styles of Roman characters in general use in writing Japanese sounds, the Hepburn and the Nippon Romazikwai (Roman Letter Association of Japan) styles. While the former has a history of long usage, the latter claims to be an improved form. In fact, each style has its merits and demerits, and neither of the two can adequately express Japanese pronunciation. Thus, it is not easy to decide which is to be adopted ex-