Hepburn Romanization - Variants of Hepburn Romanization

Variants of Hepburn Romanization

There are many variants of Hepburn romanization. The two most common styles are:

• Traditional Hepburn, as defined in various editions of Hepburn's dictionary, with the third edition (1886) often considered authoritative (although changes in kana usage must be accounted for). This variant is characterized by the rendering of syllabic n as m before the consonants b, m and p, e.g. Shimbashi for 新橋.
• Modified Hepburn, also known as Revised Hepburn, in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used, resulting in e.g. Shinbashi for 新橋. This style was introduced in the third edition of Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (1954), adopted by the Library of Congress as one of its ALA-LC romanizations, and is the most common version of the system today.

In Japan itself, there are some variants officially mandated for various uses:

• Kunrei-shiki romanization (訓令式ローマ字, Kunrei-shiki Rōmaji?), which permits Hepburn system and Nihon-shiki romanization conditionally. The first five columns in the chart 2 are defined for Hepburn system (see also here).
• Railway Standard (鉄道掲示基準規程, Tetsudō Keiji Kitun Kitei?), which follows the Hyōjun-shiki Rōmaji. All JR railways and other major railways use this type for station names.
• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Standard, which follows the modified Hepburn style. This is used for road signs.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs Standard (外務省旅券規定, Gaimushō Ryoken Kitei?), a permissive standard with explicitly allows the use of "non-Hepburn romaji" (非ヘボン式ローマ字, hi-Hebon-shiki rōmaji?) in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, rendering the syllabic n as m before b, m, p, and romanizing long o as any of oh, oo or ou (e.g. any of Satoh, Satoo or Satou for 佐藤) is permitted.

Details of these variants can be found below.